Biden’s Morehouse graduation invitation is sparking backlash, complicating election-year appearance

By BILL BARROW and SEUNG MIN KIM
Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will be the commencement speaker for Georgia’s Morehouse College and at West Point next month. But his Morehouse appearance is drawing pushback from some faculty and alumni who oppose the president’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Some Morehouse alumni want the school to rescind the invitation. The administration has told faculty it will not withdraw its invitation, which was issued in September 2023. That was before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel began the latest Middle East war. The controversy could complicate Biden’s election-year visit to one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black campuses. Biden has little margin for error among Black voters in battleground states in his rematch against former President Donald Trump.