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Trump, Biden release campaign team diversity data
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden have released diversity data for their election campaign teams as America grapples with a simmering racial justice crisis.
Just over a third of Biden’s full-time staff are people of color and 53 percent are women, CNN reported, citing a campaign aide to the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Trump’s team released its numbers shortly after the Biden campaign on Saturday, showing 25 percent of the president’s full-time senior staff are people of color and just over half are female.
The disclosures came after Biden was pressed to release the data during a virtual town hall event earlier in the day with representatives from the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.
“My administration is going to look like America — not just my staff; the administration,” Biden said when questioned by PBS NewsHour moderator Amna Nawaz.
“It’s going to be a reflection of who we are as a nation.”
Further breakdowns of the numbers by race and ethnicity were not provided.
The United States has been embroiled in a renewed and fiery national conversation about diversity and racial justice since the death of unarmed African-American George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in May.
His death ignited mass civil unrest across the country.
Polls show Biden leading Trump by a wide margin among black and Latino voters.
BSS/AFP/MMA/1507HRS