Joe Biden's Muted Reception From Restaurant Crowd Brutally Mocked

President Joe Biden was mocked on social media after attending a restaurant in South Carolina and appearing to face a lackluster reception from diners.

Biden visited Charleston to drum up support from the Black community ahead of the 2024 presidential election. He delivered a speech in Mother Emanuel AME Church, where white supremacist Dylann Roof shot nine Black parishioners in 2015.

While in the state, he stopped by the restaurant Hannibal's Soul Kitchen. Videos and images posted on X, formerly Twitter, showed diners apparently unenthusiastic about the president's visit.

Newsweek contacted representatives for Biden by email and Hannibal's Soul Kitchen by website form to comment on this story.

Benny Johnson, a political commentator, said: "Here's Joe Biden visiting a restaurant in South Carolina. "No crowd around him. No excitement. No enthusiasm. No wonder they're panicking over 2024."

Another X user, I Meme Therefore I Am, wrote:

"Biden visits one of the restaurants in SC and there is absolutely no crowd around him.

"The most popular president who got 81 million votes, my a**!!"

However, other images showed Biden greeting diners at the restaurant. Chris D. Jackson, a Tennessee election commissioner, posted four such photos, which showed the President interacting with people and posing for photographs.

Meanwhile, according to local media, the Democrat drew in crowds at the restaurant.

"He greeted me and my sister, my dad. He was very friendly. Walk around, talked to everybody that was here. Handshake and selfies," Safya Grant, the co-owner of Hannibal's, told the website counton2.com.

In his speech, Biden denounced white supremacy, referencing the 2015 attack. He also criticized his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump over the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, in which Trump supporters stormed the government building to violently contest Biden's 2020 victory.

"That violent mob was whipped up by lies from a defeated former president," Biden said. "His actions were among the worst dereliction of duty of any president in American history."

Biden was also interrupted by protesters demanding a ceasefire in Israel, as the country's war against Hamas enters its fourth calendar month. In response, his supporters chanted "four more years" to drown out the protests.

South Carolina is considered a Republican stronghold as it has not backed a Democrat for president since 1976. In 2020, Trump won 55.1 percent of the vote there.

Newsweek analysis found Black voters are being increasingly swayed by Trump who, according to recent polling, is poised to win more Black votes than any other Republican in history.