[UPDATED, 6 a.m., 1/8/24] President Joe Biden is expected to land late morning Monday at Charleston International Airport on Air Force One before a 12:30 p.m. speech at Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street. Thirty minutes earlier, ceremonies will get underway at noon for the inauguration of Charleston Mayor-elect William Cogswell and six Charleston city council members.
With both events, expect traffic snarls throughout the day.
On Monday, the president is expected to highlight the fight for democracy and personal freedom during the 2024 election in the midst of a “hate-fueled, dangerous agenda” offered by others. He will use the Charleston church’s congregation as a model for the nation, the White House said early today. Biden is expected to share how “when we are confronted with unimaginable horror, we can achieve healing and lasting progress by honoring tragedy with action,” according to a statement.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who is co-chair of the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign, added in the statement that the 2024 election would be defining for the country: “Few places embody these stakes like Mother Emanuel AME – a church that has witnessed the horrors of hate-fueled political violence and a church that has spoken to the conscience of this nation and shown us the path forward after moments of division and despair.”
Traffic delays expected
With both events, expect traffic snarls throughout the day.
“Commuters, both pedestrians and drivers, should expect major delays,” said Charleston Police spokesman Anthony Gibson in a traffic advisory.
Roads likely to be impacted from the morning to late afternoon during the president’s visit are Interstates 26 and 526 as well as the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge and downtown streets on the peninsula, Gibson said. As Biden travels to and from the church, there also will be some road closures. During the speech, all pedestrian and vehicular traffic will be closed on Calhoun Street between Meeting and East Bay streets, Gibson said. More details will be provided when they are available.
Traffic around City Hall also will be affected between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. for the inauguration ceremonies:
- Broad Street between Meeting and Church streets will be closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Meeting Street between Queen and Tradd streets will be closed from 11:15 a.m. until 1 p.m. Traffic will, however, be able to flow north and south on Meeting Street until 11:15 a.m.
- Broad Street between King and Meeting streets will be closed from 11:15 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Kick off of the 2024 campaign
Biden’s visit signals the earnest start of the 2024 presidential primary election process. While other candidates have made periodic appearances in the Palmetto State, South Carolina’s first-in-the-nation Democratic primary looms on Feb. 3, followed by the GOP’s first-in-the-South primary three weeks later. In recent days, Republican presidential candidates have been mostly absent from South Carolina as they flood into Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada – states where GOP voters make primary or caucus decisions before South Carolina’s contest.
Biden’s visit on Monday is his first trip to Emanuel AME Church since his vice presidency under former President Barack Obama. It is one of the oldest Black churches in the South and is the site where nine churchgoers were shot and killed by white supremacist Dylann Roof in 2015.
“Whether it is white supremacists descending on the historic American city of Charlottesville, the assault on our nation’s capital on January 6 or a white supremacist murdering churchgoers at Mother Emanuel nearly nine years ago, America is worried about the rise in political violence and determined to stand against it,” Biden-Harris 2024 Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks said in a statement earlier in the week. “The president’s return to the Palmetto State marks the fourth time as president to talk directly to voters who propelled him to the highest office in the land four years ago.”
Biden’s visit also underscores how critically he regards the state, which was vital in his securing the nomination in 2020. The president’s team is under pressure to demonstrate strength among the minority-heavy Democratic electorate there.
Harris spoke Saturday in S.C. on insurrection anniversary
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke in Myrtle Beach on the third anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
In a keynote address at the 7th Episcopal District AME Church Women’s Missionary Society annual retreat, Harris recalled “when a mob violently attacked the United States Capitol, they used brutal force and fear to try to overturn the results of a free and fair election. They tried to overrule the votes of millions of Americans,” according to Reuters. “On that day, we saw violence, chaos, and lawlessness, but some so-called leaders still tried to mislead and gaslight by saying it was a peaceful protest.”
In a Jan. 6 email message to supporters, she also said the stakes of the 2024 election were high.
“On January 6, we all saw what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful,” she wrote. “The lawlessness, the violence, the chaos. What was at stake then, and now, is the right to have our future decided the way the Constitution prescribes it: by we, the people — all the people.”
Later this month, Harris will visit Columbia Jan. 15 during King Day at the Dome celebrations.
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