WASHINGTON — A few months after taking office, President Joe Biden invited a group of top Latino leaders to the White House. As they sat around the table, the president was surprisingly earnest. He went as far as to acknowledge, two people familiar with the conversation recounted, that his five decades in politics had given him far more familiarity with the African American community and its top issues than with Latinos and their concerns.
Nearly a year and a half later, Biden and Democrats have delivered on a number of policy promises of deep importance to Latinos. But some Latino activists worry voters aren't aware of all that's been done, and others worry that the blinkered perspective Biden acknowledged privately has limited Latino representation in his administration.
"I believe there's a blind spot in the White House and in the Oval Office," said Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who pointed to a lack of Latino appointees in key roles across the executive branch. "It's clear that the president himself doesn't have an understanding of the Latino community."
