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The post ‘The Squad’ shows staying power after string of primary wins appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The ‘Squad’ seems positioned to influence Congress for years after a strong showing by key members in closely watched primaries with national implications.
With Rep. Ilhan Omar‘s victory on Tuesday, she joined squad members Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who all held their own against Democratic primary challengers in recent weeks.
Her win was the latest series of victories by the progressive lawmakers. In Minnesota, Omar defeated attorney Antone Melton-Meaux, who garnered attention for outraising her during the campaign.
REP. ILHAN OMAR BEATS BACK DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY CHALLENGE IN MINNESOTA
Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar addresses media after lunch at the Mercado Central in Minneapolis Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, primary Election Day in Minnesota. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
“Tonight, our movement didn’t just win,” Omar tweeted. “We earned a mandate for change. Despite outside efforts to defeat us, we once again broke turnout records. Despite the attacks, our support has only grown.”
“It has been the honor of my life to represent you in Congress and I look forward to continuing to serve the people of the 5th District in the years to come,” she continued.
The Somali born lawmaker was elected as one of the first Muslim American women in Congress, along with Tlaib. Her outspoken criticism of President Trump and advocacy for far-left ideas have gained national attention and — with the help of her Twitter feed — made her a target of Republicans and even some fellow Democrats.
No stranger to controversy, she found herself apologizing after making comments about Israel and money that even some fellow Democrats viewed as anti-Semitic.
SQUAD MEMBER OMAR IN PRIMARY SPOTLIGHT AS 5 STATES HOLD CONTESTS TUESDAY
Melton-Meaux said he supported Omar’s first run for Congress in 2018 but criticized her for the number of votes she’s missed.
“She has been ineffective in Washington because she is divisive, and she’s focused on her celebrity,” Melton-Meaux told The Associated Press.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death, police reform also emerged as an issue. Omar runs Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District – which covers much of the city of Minneapolis — seen as the ground for nationwide protests sparked by Floyd’s death in police custody on May 25.
Omar supported a push by a majority of the Minneapolis City Council to replace the city’s police department with something new. Melton-Meaux did not support that but did support shifting some funding away from police to more social service-oriented programs.
Tlaib — another member of the four-person squad — won her primary election in Detroit last Wednesday and proclaimed that her win showed that the progressive lawmakers are coming back to Congress stronger and bigger.
She tweeted “Our squad is big!” after the victory on Tuesday by Omar.
TLAIB WINS MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY, DECLARES SQUAD ‘HERE TO STAY, AND IT’S ONLY GETTING BIGGER’
She outraised and beat Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones in the 13th District primary by a two-to-one margin, which was seen as another shot in the arm for the progressive left-wing of the Democratic Party that has been taking on establishment figures. Cori Bush, a Black Lives Matter activist also defeated Rep. William Lacy Clay — a longtime St. Louis-area congressman — in Missouri’s Democratic primary on Aug 4.
“Let it be known that in the 13th District, just like in communities across our country, we are done with establishment politics that put corporations first,” Tlaib said in a victory statement. “If I was considered the most vulnerable member of the Squad, I think it’s safe to say the Squad is here to stay, and it’s only getting bigger.”
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks as, from left, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., listen during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, July 15, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez easily defeated former CNBC contributor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and other challengers during New York’s June primary, winning 70 percent of the vote. She outraised Caruso-Cabrera who was backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and managed only 19 percent.
OCASIO-CORTEZ TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER PRIMARY BLOWOUT: ‘THEIR MONEY COULDN’T BUY A MOVEMENT’
After winning, Ocasio-Cortez said the victory proves the far-left movement she leads in New York and nationally is “a mandate.”
“When I won in 2018, many dismissed our victory as a ‘fluke,'” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on June 23. “Our win was treated as an aberration, or bc my opponent ‘didn’t try.’ So from the start, tonight’s race was important to me. Tonight we are proving that the people’s movement in NY isn’t an accident. It‘s a mandate.”
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The fourth squad member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, represents Massachusetts’ 7th congressional District and is unopposed in the state’s Democratic primary on Sept. 1.
Fox News’ Morgan Phillips, Marisa Schultz and The Associated Press contributed to this report
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]]>The post What is the BREATHE Act? Squad members push wide-ranging bill that slashes police funds, gives reparations appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts announced the BREATHE Act on Tuesday — legislation that would radically transform the nation’s criminal justice system by eliminating life sentences, retroactively expunging drug crimes, shutting down multiple federal agencies and permanently closing prisons and immigration detention centers, among other agenda items.
The bill also seeks to end gang databases, establish pilot programs for a universal basic income, and afford voting rights and “lifetime education” to all illegal immigrants and incarcerated criminals.
The bill’s fate in the Democratic-controlled House is unknown, as not all members support defunding the police. The movement that grew out of nationwide protests over the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed after Derek Chauvin, a White Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes — despite Floyd saying that he couldn’t breathe.
The House passed a sweeping police reform bill last month. All 233 Democrats voted in favor of the bill — titled the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — along with three Republicans. The Senate voted 55-45 in favor of the bill, but it needed 60 votes to move forward.
Republicans have critical of the separate effort to fully defund the police. Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., called the plan “clearly a serious effort to compete in the Woke Olympics. I would give it 9.7….The only way I know how to improve their bill is with the shredder.”
Here’s a brief summary of what’s in the BREATHE Act.
READ THE FULL BREATHE ACT PROPOSALS
Section 1: Divesting from police
- Divesting from agencies like the DEA and ICE as well as moving federal resources away from incarceration and policing
- Eliminate ankle monitors
- End civil asset forfeiture, which even some conservatives say is readily open to police abuse
- End life sentences and mandatory minimum sentences
- Develop a “time-bound plan to close all federal prisons and immigration detention centers”
- Decriminalize and retroactively expunge both state and federal drug offenses
Section 2: Community safety
- Offer a 50 percent federal match for projected savings when states and/or local jurisdictions close detention facilities, including jails
- End cooperation with immigration authorities
- Ban “pretextual” police stops and searches, even where police obtain consent. It’s not clear how the lawmakers would define a “pretextual” police stop
- Abolish police gang databases, as well as armed cops and metal detectors in school
- Forgive all outstanding court debt
- Tie state grants to intervention programs that involve specialists other than police responding to some 911 calls
Section 3: Allocating new money
- Create a plan to close youth detention centers
- Pilot programs for universal basic income
- Develop curricula that examine the political, economic, and social impacts of colonialism, native genocide, and slavery
- Create tools to promote environmental justice, including by subsidizing “community” energy solutions
- Provide lifetime education for illegal immigrants and the currently incarcerated
- Ensure all communities have safe access to water
- Eliminate state laws that bar formerly incarcerated people from serving as guardian for their own children or others in their community
Section 4: Holding officials accountable
- Pass the Commission to Study Reparation Proposal for African-Americans Act and establish commissions to “design reparations” for mass incarceration to include those caught up in the War on Drugs, border and police violence and the “systemic violation of the U.S. Government’s treaty obligations to Tribal nations”
- Enfranchise all incarcerated individuals
- Guarantee private right of action for recovering damages when a federal official has committed a constitutional violation
- Allowing local and state resident voting for illegal immigrants
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]]>The post ‘Squad’ Dems Tlaib, Pressley introduce bill to defund police, give reparations appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Two congressional “squad” members unveiled a wide-ranging proposal Tuesday to defund police departments and establish a reparations program for African Americans and people harmed by the police and the criminal justice system.
Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, both Democrats, announced the BREATHE Act via a virtual conference call. Both lawmakers are part of the four-member “squad,” a group of female progressive House members that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
“We can start to envision through this bill a new version for public safety — a new vision for public safety, one that protects and affirms black lives,” Tlaib said, according to the New York Post.
The legislation has not been introduced. Ocasio-Cortez and Omar were not announced as backers of the proposal.
Under the bill, federal funds to local police and federal agencies would be slashed and diverted to pay for health care, education, environmental housing programs. It would eliminate federal programs and agencies used to finance Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the controversial Department of Defense 1033 program, which transfers excess military equipment to civilian law enforcement agencies.
The program has been criticized for the perceived militarization of local police departments.
Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, left, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, right, unveiled a bill Tuesday that would slash funds for police departments and establish a reparations program for African-Americans and those harmed by the police and criminal justice system.
Other provisions include abolishing surveillance tactics disproportionately used to target minority communities, electronic monitoring — including ankle monitors, smartphone apps and other tools — ending civil asset forfeiture, ending the “three strikes” law and repealing laws that criminalize illegal immigration.
In addition, it would offer a 50 percent match of savings for states to close down detention facilities and prisons, the elimination of gang databases and the forgiving of all fees and surcharges within the justice system.
The reparations provisions include the passing the Commission to Study Reparation Proposal for African-Americans Act and establishing commissions to “design reparations” for mass incarceration to include those caught up in the War on Drugs, border and police violence and the “systemic violation of the U.S. Government’s treaty obligations to Tribal nations.”
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The bill is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled House, as many do not support defunding the police, a movement that grew out of nationwide anger over the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a Black man, died in May while in police custody.
The House passed a sweeping police reform bill last month. All 233 Democrats voted in favor of the bill — titled the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — along with three Republicans. The Senate voted 55-45 in favor of the bill — it needed 60 votes to move forward.
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]]>The post ‘Squad’ member Ayanna Pressley says Trump coronavirus response ‘akin to war crimes’ appeared first on Virus Reports.
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A member of the far-left “Squad” of freshmen congresswomen slammed President Trump’s coronavirus response this week, alleging it was “akin to war crimes.”
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., made her allegations in a video posted Monday.
Claiming “criminal negligence, science denials, [and] a sluggish response,” on the part of Trump, she said the U.S. was now playing catchup during the pandemic, “which is the last place that you want to be in the midst of any public health crisis.”
Pressley said relief efforts shouldn’t discriminate based on race, income or immigration status and advocated for universal paid leave, sick pay for all workers and “long-term financial assistance.”
“This hurt is unprecedented, it is being felt by everyone and the relief should be felt by everyone,” she added during the video conference with other progressive leaders.
SPEAKER PELOSI RIPS TRUMP AS ‘WEAK LEADER,’ TELLS ‘FOX NEWS SUNDAY’ HE’S FAILED ON CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE
Pressley said progressives need to be even more “unapologetic” and “emboldened” in pushing for proposals that she said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has derided as Democratic “wish lists.”
“When Leader McConnell says he’s tired of our wish list, we’re going to keep wishing,” she said.
“When Leader McConnell says he’s tired of our wish list, we’re going to keep wishing.”
— U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.
“Now is not the time to be incremental,” she added. “I don’t think that it is too big of a wish to want to center the humanity and the dignity and the very preservation of life for every individual, every family and every worker.”
Trump has been criticized by Democrats for not taking the threat of the virus more seriously when it first showed up in the U.S., for being slow to react and for not getting more testing kits and personal protective equipment to states.
The president has pointed to a travel ban he placed on China in late January as an example of his quick response and has accused the World Health Organization of covering up for China as the virus began to spread, saying the WHO put “political correctness over lifesaving measures.”
War crimes are defined as “grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions” and include torture, willful killing and taking hostages, among others.
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Trump was accused by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others in January other threatening to commit war crimes when he tweeted that the U.S. had targeted Iranian cultural sites. He later backtracked and said he would “obey the law.”
Pressley went into self-isolation in late March after contracting flu-like symptoms that she feared at the time could have been the coronavirus, the Washington Examiner reported. She later tested negative.
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