Joe is testing the waters for a 2020 run.
Via Charleston Post and Courier:
The Charleston Branch NAACP celebrated its 100th anniversary Saturday night with a gala fundraiser featuring former Vice President Joe Biden as keynote speaker.
“Home for me is the NAACP,” Biden told the gathering of about 800 in the Gaillard Center ballroom in a speech fueling speculation about a 2020 run for president. “I got started (politically) with the NAACP. The NAACP in my state (of Deleware) was the moral center.”
Biden summarized key moments in South Carolina and NAACP history: The early effort to put black teachers in classrooms, the Briggs v. Elliott case of 1952, the march to Columbia in protest of the Confederate flag in 2000, the Emanuel AME Church shooting of 2015.
“Staring down rage and hate isn’t new to you, it’s in your DNA,” he told gala attendees. “If you think your state and nation needed you in the past, we need you now more than ever.”
Former South Carolina lawmaker Bakari Sellers, now a CNN contributor, was master of ceremonies. Several dignitaries made brief comments, including Rep. David Mack. “The country is in trouble right now,” he said. “There’s never been a more important time for the NAACP.”