By Akayla Gardner<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Vice President Joe Biden was pressed by a group of four reporters in a headline-making conversation during the joint virtual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, faced backlash for his comments on diversity in political attitudes within Black and Latino communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnlike the African American community with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about certain different things,\u201d Biden said. \u201cYou go to Florida you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do then when you\u2019re in Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His comments came in response to a line of questioning by NPR\u2019s Lulu Garcia-Navarro on Biden\u2019s plans to engage with Cuba and Latino voters, especially those in Florida, on the issue of providing Cuban migrants temporary protection status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior campaign adviser Symone Sanders told Politico in a statement that the video circling online was \u201cconveniently cut to make this about racial diversity but that\u2019s not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanders said Biden was referring to diversity in opinion among Latin American countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden tweeted out a clarification, stating, \u201cIn no way did I mean to suggest the African American community is a monolith\u2014not by identity, not on issues, not at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Pew Research Center, 26% of Latinos and 6% of Black people voted for President Trump in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden, the right-hand of the nation\u2019s first Black president Barack Obama, found himself apologizing to the Black community in May after he said in a Breakfast Club interview, \u201cif you have a problem figuring out if you\u2019re for me or for Trump, you ain\u2019t black.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While some saw the comment as a joke, others felt the comment exposed that Biden takes the Black vote for granted\u2014a community credited with reviving his campaign with a primary win in South Carolina ahead of Super Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat I think is true is that Biden and the Democratic Party takes for granted that the overwhelming majority of Black Americans will vote their way,\u201d Steven Woods, a Texas voter, wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden stopped by the convention for a chat with some of the best journalists from both NABJ and NAHJ. With less than ninety days until the November election, Biden was pressed by reporters about his race for the white house. Here are a few clips from that 54-minute interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n