South Carolina’s Republican chairman suggested on Monday that President Joe Biden’s visit to Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, was motivated by his faltering support among a core Democratic constituency: black Americans.

“The fact that he’s spending time in South Carolina, and particularly the venue there today, speaks to the fact that I think they’re worried about the continued erosion that we’ve seen among African Americans for Democrats, and particularly Joe Biden,” Drew McKissick told the Washington Examiner in an interview.

“That’s a huge problem for them, and they are very worried about it,” he added.

Biden addressed attendees at the church Monday where a white supremacist gunman killed nine black churchgoers in 2015.

“The word of God was pierced by bullets of hate and rage propelled by not just gunpowder, but by a poison, poison that has for too long haunted this nation, and what is that poison? White supremacy,” he said in his speech. “This has no place in America — not today, tomorrow, or ever.”

He also took aim at former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state, referencing her recent answer on the Civil War’s cause, which omitted slavery. “Let me be clear for those who don’t seem to know: Slavery was the cause,” he said.

The church visit came as Biden continues to struggle with black voters, a pivotal demographic for Democrats.

In 2020, then-candidate Donald Trump received the support of just 8% of black voters, compared to 92% for Biden. But in recent polling of a potential rematch, 22% of black voters in six key swing states said they would choose Trump. In these matchups, Biden garnered 71% support, markedly less than his national share in the previous election.

Prior to his Charleston trip, Biden’s Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks assured reporters Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s South Carolina visits weren’t coming “from a place of worry.”

“They’re a place of practicing what we preach. The president did prioritize putting South Carolina first in the nation in order to involve more people of color in the presidential process, and so, we’re doing just that,” he said.

“But when it comes to voters of color and if we’re worried, look, our campaign has been putting in the work to do everything we need to do to communicate with communities of color next fall to make sure that they turn out,” Fulks said. “We’re not going to wait and parachute into these communities at the last minute and ask them for their vote. We’re going to earn their vote.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

McKissick predicted Biden’s efforts in the state would be futile, however. “He can come if he wants to. He can go anywhere he wants to. But his problem is he’s still saddled with the same bad record,” the SCGOP chairman said.

He further claimed Biden has opted to attack Trump, who he noted is not yet the Republican nominee, rather than campaign on his record.