Joe Biden makes fight against racism a core campaign issue
Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden calls institutional racism a 'white man's problem'; reaction from Roger Fisk, former staffer for President Obama.
Democratic strategist Roger Fisk speculated on Wednesday that former Vice President Joe Biden has been talking more about race as part of a push to try and knock out his 2020 competitors in the South Carolina primary.
"I think when he starts to talk about these things -- that to me is kind of telegraphing that he's thinking that South Carolina is really where he's going to plant the flag and hopefully clear out some of the remaining field," Fisk said on "Outnumbered Overtime."
His comments came just after Biden decried what he called racist "instincts" that he said were "overwhelmingly a white man problem visited on people of color."
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Fisk, who also served in former President Obama's administration, argued that Biden could "maintain" ground with black voters in response to Fox News host Shannon Bream's question about whether Biden had to "gain" ground with black voters due to his support for policies like the 1994 crime bill, which critics say disproportionately impacted that community.
Fisk also said that the states where Biden showed the most strength are in the latter part primary and caucus schedule.
"I think right now, he's weakest in Iowa because the enthusiasm is with the Warrens and the Sanders of the world," he said, referring to progressive leaders Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Two polls released Wednesday show Biden holding on to his lead in the Democratic primary race.
The latest surveys, by Suffolk University for USA Today and Quinnipiac University, both show Biden at 32 percent among likely Democratic primary and caucus voters nationwide.
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In the USA Today/Suffolk University poll, Biden's standing represented a 2-point rise from a prior poll in June.
Warren grabbed second place in that poll, at 14 percent, up 4 points from June. Sanders dropped 3 points and stood at 12 percent in the new survey.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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