National Committee of Asian American Republicans endorses Biden

Four years after endorsing President Trump in the 2016 race, an Asian American GOP group says it is now backing Democratic nominee Joe Biden. 

The National Committee of Asian American Republicans announced on its website that it is encouraging its thousands of members to support Biden this year. 

“We don’t need a smart-pants president who knows everything including the best medicine curing COVID-19, who empowers only his base to run over political opposition,” the group wrote. “We need a president with empathy, integrity, and broadness capable of bringing all sides to the table to find common ground, and work together overcoming serious challenges ahead.”

“It is OK that you voted for Trump in 2016, most conservatives did; we wanted an outsider to rattle the system. But he is destroying the whole building,” the statement at the top of the group’s website reads. “It is also fine you disagree with many Biden’s policies. It is about whether America is still THE America. The future of our families, our communities, our great nation, and the World is at stake!”

The end of the post concludes: “Vote for Joe Biden, SAVE AMERICA!” 

The group previously endorsed Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican primaries before backing Trump in the general election. 

According to NBC News, which first reported on the endorsement, Asian Americans make up 4 percent of eligible voters in the U.S. and are a growing demographic. 

The endorsement of Biden over Trump follows a study earlier this year showing that the use of the phrase “China virus” by Trump and some Republican allies led to an increase in anti-Asian discrimination amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

The study, from professors at the Universities of California as well as the Tulane School of Medicine, found that years of incidents of violence and bias against Asian Americans trending downward was reversed earlier this year after top U.S. officials used the term to describe the COVID-19 outbreak.