Tag: Congressional Black Caucus

Capitol Police arrest Rep. Joyce Beatty at protest

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Congressional Black Caucus chair was part of a group advocating voting rights

Capitol Police arrested Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, for participating in a voting rights demonstration in the Hart Senate Office Building on Thursday.

Beatty and eight other voting rights activists were arrested for crowding, obstructing or incommoding, the legal term used by the department when protesters are arrested on Capitol Hill. 

They were protesting to call for action in the Senate on the For the People Act, a wide-ranging elections overhaul bill that would, among other actions, expand voting rights significantly. Republicans in the chamber blocked the measure in June, utilizing the filibuster and its 60-vote threshold to prevent the Senate from moving forward on it. Continue reading.

Trump was reportedly surprised black lawmakers didn’t personally know fellow black person Ben Carson

The following article by German Lopez was posted on the Vox website January 12, 2018:

Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

That wasn’t even the only stereotype Trump reportedly threw out during a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus.

President Donald Trump reportedly couldn’t avoid stereotyping black people during a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus.

He had asked members of the Congressional Black Caucus in a March meeting, Vivian Salama reported for NBC News on Friday, if they personally knew Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who is black. He was surprised when none of the attendees did, two meeting attendees told Salama. Continue reading “Trump was reportedly surprised black lawmakers didn’t personally know fellow black person Ben Carson”

The Conway picture is only a small error in Trump’s swing-and-a-miss black college event

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website February 28, 2017:

Kellyanne Conway checks her phone after taking a photo as President Trump and leaders of historically black universities and colleges pose in the Oval Office on Monday. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

It’s the photo that’s getting all the attention: Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser to President Trump, sitting with her feet up on a couch in the Oval Office on Monday, reviewing photos on her phone in comfort as a crowd of people join the president for a photo behind his desk.

Most people who see that won’t know who those people are or what they’re doing there. The story of the meeting for many will be that Conway is inappropriately at ease in the most important room in the country — a critique that was levied at President Barack Obama shortly after he took office in 2009 and held meetings without wearing a jacket.

But the administration’s flub on that meeting runs much deeper.

The people gathered around Trump’s desk are all representatives of historically black colleges and universities, HBCUs. They were at the White House for a “listening session,” in the formulation of the White House press office, there to share “expert insights on policy issues impacting their individual campuses.” A readout from the event suggests that they discussed “how to create a better partnership between the Trump Administration and HBCUs.” Continue reading “The Conway picture is only a small error in Trump’s swing-and-a-miss black college event”

If Trump can’t arrange his own meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, how does he unite the country?

The following article by Terence Samuel was posted on the Washington Post website February 16, 2017:

President’s Trump news conference on Thursday turned quickly into a fireworks display of rants and recriminations as the new chief executive blasted away at the media, belittled his detractors and discounted the obvious chaos that has enveloped his White House.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we’ve done,” Trump declared at the outset, ignoring all the controversy that has consumed his first weeks in office. Continue reading “If Trump can’t arrange his own meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, how does he unite the country?”

Susan Rice Calls Donald Trump’s Black Caucus Remarks ‘Offensive’

The following article by Alexander Smith was posted on the NBC News website February 17, 2017:

President Donald Trump’s exchange with a black journalist during Thursday’s whirlwind press conference has been branded “notably offensive” by former National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

Continue reading “Susan Rice Calls Donald Trump’s Black Caucus Remarks ‘Offensive’”