Trump campaign targets Biden black voters gaffe
The Trump campaign has seized on Joe Biden's gaffe claiming that African-American voters "ain't black" if they consider supporting Donald Trump in November.
Republican strategists have earmarked $1 million for an advertising campaign aimed at weakening the former vice-president's support among African-American voters.
The ad highlights Mr Biden's support for the 1994 crime bill which led to mass incarceration destroying, "millions of black lives".
Over the next few months the ad will appear on Instagram, Facebook and Google.
Tim Scott, an African-American who is a Republican senator for South Carolina, has launched a website highlighting Mr Biden's comments and is also selling #YouAintBlack t-shirts.
Mr Biden has frantically tried to undo the damage, admitting that he was "much too cavalier" in his remarks in a call with black community leaders.
"I know that the comments have come off like I was taking the African American vote for granted. But nothing could be further for the truth. I've never ever done that and I've earned it every time I've run," he said.
The black vote was crucial for in rescuing Mr Biden's primary campaign, eventually catapulting him to the nomination.
It could also prove pivotal in swing states in the presidential election.
The Trump campaign has stepped up its campaign in recent months taking out ads in black community newspapers hoping to increase on the eight per cent vote share of the African-American vote which he won in 2016.
During the Super Bowl, the Trump campaign spent millions on a TV slot highlighting his support for criminal justice reform – telling the story of Alice Johnson, a black woman whose life sentence for a non-violent drug offence was commuted by the President.
Opinions differed on how damage Mr Biden's latest verbal indiscretion would cause.
"He has just blown his campaign," said Oliver McGee, an African-American who served in the Clinton administration but has since become a Trump supporter.
"He has just insulted black people in this country. I think he is completely crazy, it is unamerican.
"Nobody would let Donald Trump get away with that."
Political analyst Christopher Galdieri, associate professor at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, said he believed the row would die down.
"I think it is the sort of thing people will talk about for a couple of days. It is spring and nothing much is happening in the campaign.
"He apologised pretty quickly and he has such a strong relationship with African American voters that it is hard to see this damaging him in the long term."
