For Joe Biden, Bailing on Morehouse’s Commencement Was Never an Option

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Biden insiders tell TIME he has personal and political reasons for speaking at the Morehouse College ceremony despite likely protests over Israel.

President Joe Biden attended one of his many commencement ceremonies at Howard University in Washington, DC, on May 13, 2023.Even before the White House announced last month that President Joe Biden would deliver one of his two commencement speeches this graduation season at Morehouse College in Atlanta, the prestigious historically Black college was seeing signs of the same political unrest that was bubbling up at dozens of colleges and universities across the country.

“He loves this ,” says a former Biden aide who is no longer actively working in his orbit. “He feels like this is how he changes every life in that room, makes a difference for a generation, leaves his mark on a fulcrum day. He can’t do retail as much as he used to, so this is as close as he’s going to get.”

So, it’s with this situational awareness that Biden’s team is sending him to Morehouse for his speech on Sunday. Ahead of that, though, the White House last FridaySteve Benjamin, the former mayor of Columbia, S.C., who now heads the White House Office of Public Engagement, to hear students’ concerns. Chief among them: Biden would turn his visit to a legendary HBCU into a campaign stop; Benjamin assured them Biden would be there to celebrate the graduates, not to look for votes in Georgia.

Morehouse administrators have made clear that rescinding the President’s invitation is not an option: Morehouse President David A. Thomas has told students, alumni, and activists alike that there was zero chance the college would “reverse course.”

 

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