2:41
Jean Ortiz, who was present during the 2015 mass shooting inside Mother Emmanuel, said Monday's interruption brought back similar feelings of fear.
\"I thought they were terrible. Like it kind of gave me a flashback,\" Ortiz told ABC News. \"It was the same way with Dylann Roof.\"
A niece of shooting victim Susie Jackson shared similar sentiments.
\"It was frightening because it was almost like we relived it,\" the niece said. \"It was very much overwhelming when they first started. It wasn't the time and place. If they did it outside, that was fine -- but not right there on our holy grounds.\"
Monday's remarks comes as Biden looks to shore up support among Black voters, a constituency key to his election four years ago but whose approval of him has waned since he's taken office.
He started his presidency with an 86% average approval rating among Black Americans, according to FiveThirtyEight, higher than any other racial group, but that number dropped to 60% by early last year, the lowest it's been for Biden among Black Americans since he assumed office.
South Carolina was pivotal to Biden's 2020 win, clinching the state's Democratic primary by nearly 30 points -- a turning point for his campaign following losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The trip -- his first this year to an early voting state -- comes as some Democrats, like Clyburn, express concerns not only with Biden's appeal to Black voters and the party's more progressive wing but with how he'll break through the so-called \"MAGA wall.\"
\"I'm not worried. I'm very concerned,\" Clyburn said on CNN' \"State of the Union\" Sunday, asked if he was worried about Black voters turning out to the polls.
\"I have no problem with the Biden administration and what it has done. My problem is we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall, in order to get to people exactly what this person has done,\" he said, ticking through achievements he thinks Biden should hit harder, such as how he's lowered the cost of prescription drug and appointed more Black women to the court of appeals than any other president.
The Democratic National Committee reorganized its primary calendar this year to lead with South Carolina with the primary election just 26 days away, on Feb. 3.
\"I'm here to speak to another truth – because of this congregation, and the Black community of South Carolina and not exaggeration, and Jim Clyburn, that I stand here today as your president. That's a fact,\" Biden said inside Emanuel to applause. \"I've done my best to honor your trust means rejecting the small, narrow, cramped view of America, as well as lifting up a bigger, broader view of America.\"
\"You all made this possible because of your voice. Your voice was heard in shaping your destiny. That's democracy. I'm proud to have led the effort to make sure your voice in South Carolina will always be heard. Because now you're first in the primary,\" he added later.
Biden's appearance in Charleston comes on the heels of his first major 2024 campaign event, a speech near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, last Friday to mark the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
There, the president cast Trump as a threat to democracy,
\"The choice is clear. Donald Trump's campaign is about him, not America, not you. Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power,\" Biden said. \"Our campaign is different… Our campaign is about preserving and strengthening our American democracy.\"
The Biden-Harris campaign told ABC News it raised more than $1 million online in the 24 hours following Biden's democracy and freedom-focused message in the battleground state.
\"In election after election, democracy and freedom are mobilizing issues for the American people,\" digital director Rob Flaherty said in a statement on Monday. \"In 2024, that will be no different, and we are encouraged by the strong grassroots enthusiasm we are seeing around the President's core campaign message.\"
Trump, meanwhile, said recently on his social media platform Truth Social, in what's become a stump line for his outreach to Black voters, \"I have done more for Black people than any other President (Lincoln?),\" citing funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and opportunity zones.
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