Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 5-15-18

White House And Political News
EMILY’S List Folks Go After Black Gubernatorial Candidate For Comment Made By Supporter
Tallahassee mayor, Andrew Gillum is running for governor, and the race card is being drawn. This is what the board of directors of EMILY’s List looks like.
U. S. Bishop To Deliver Address At Royal Wedding
A senior U. S. Bishop will deliver an address at the wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Saturday.
The Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry, the 27th Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, was the first African- American elected into the prestigious role in 2015.
Prince Harry, the sixth- in-line to the throne, and Ms .Markle, star of U. S. television drama Suits, will tie the knot at Windsor Castle, home to the British royal fam- ily for nearly 1,000 years.
Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry.
U. S. Senator Kamala Harris Joins
Florida’s Democratic race for governor has become a de- bate about race and gender. And it’s getting ugly.
The flare-up began last week when a Black woman who supports Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum called former U. S. Rep. Gwen Graham a “skank” on Twitter.
Graham’s folks then called on Gillum to denounce the comments from his supporter, Leslie Wimes, who amplified the slur Thursday morning in a column she writes for a conser- vative publication, the Sun- shine State News, that bore the headline “Skank, Oh, My!”
According to Politico, by noon, the group EMILY’s List, which backs women abortion-
rights Democrats, called on Gillum “to make clear to his supporters that negative, gen- dered attacks have no place in political discourse.”
In its press release, EMILY’S List also criticized Gillum over the primary’s first new negative ad campaign, launched by a pro-black super PAC called The Collective, that casts Graham as a phony progressive.
And that’s when race en- tered the picture.
“It’s all about race,” Wimes said, noting the difference in EMILY’s List's involvement in this race compared to its neu- trality in the 2014 gubernato- rial Democratic primary when longtime abortion-rights lib- eral, former state Sen. Nan
Rich, ran against former Gov. Charlie Crist, who had been a self-styled “pro-life” Republi- can before leaving the GOP. Wimes pointed out that, in 2014, Graham ran for Con- gress as a “very conservative Democrat” and was not the “progressive” that EMILY’s List calls her.
“So when a true progressive runs against a fake Democrat, EMILY’S List does nothing. But when someone who described herself as a ‘very conservative Democrat’ runs against a black man who’s a true progressive, they jumped in waist deep for her,” Wimes said.
Gillum's campaign has stated Wimes should have fo- cused on Graham's record.
Senator Corey Booker To Support Decriminalize Marijuana Nationwide
Last August, he discussed the effects of criminalizing cannabis, saying, “It’s done se- rious damage to American fam- ilies. Finding ways to take communities that have been disproportionately impacted and helping them to heal, help- ing them to recover from what has been an unjust application of the law.”
He also announced plans for the Marijuana Justice Act as a means to fight for “restorative justice” nationwide.
Now, Sen. Kamala Har- ris (D-CA) is joining the cause. She threw her support behind the Marijuana Justice Act, say- ing in a Facebook video, “Right now in this country people are being arrested, being prose- cuted, and end up spending time in jail or prison all because of their use of a drug that other- wise should be considered legal.
Making marijuana legal at the federal level is the smart thing to do, it’s the right thing to do. I know this as a former prosecutor and I know it as a senator.”
Weed is currently listed as a Schedule 1 drug, but with the Marijuana Justice Act, cannabis would be removed from the list of controlled substances.
Here are some other key facts, according to a recent press release:
• Incentivize states through f e d eral funds to change their
Another White House Official Bites The Dust
Black U. S. Senators Kamala Harris and Corey Booker. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is pas- sionate about legalizing mari- juana nationwide.
marijuana laws if marijuana in the state is illegal and the state disproportionately arrests or in- carcerates low-income individ- uals or people of color for marijuana-related offenses;
• Automatically expunge fed- eral marijuana use and posses- sion crimes;
• Allow an individual cur- rently serving time in federal prison for marijuana use or possession crimes to petition a court for a resentencing;
• Create a community rein- vestment fund to reinvest in communities most impacted by the failed War on Drugs and allow those funds to be invested in other programs.
The top White House official responsible for leading the U. S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic abruptly left the administration last week, and the global health security team he oversaw has been dis- banded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.
Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Se- curity Council is no longer a part of Donald Trump’s ad- ministration.
With Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council gone, it means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security.
Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many ex- perts say the country is already
underprepared for the increas- ing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack, according to the Washington Post.
Many Want Apology After Aide Jokes About Sen. John McCain’s Health
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I- Vt.), and others are criticizing the White House for not issuing a statement apologizing for a comment an aide made about Sen. John McCain’s health.
However, instead of formu- lating an apology, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders privately berated the White House communications and press staff Friday about the comment being leaked.
In discussing McCain's op- position to CIA nominee Gina Haspel, Kelly Sadler, a spe- cial assistant who handles sur- rogate communications for the White House, said in a private meeting Thursday that it does- n't matter "because he's dying anyway." It was a joke that fell flat, a White House official told
White House communica- tions aide, Kelly Sadler makes joke about John McCain’s health because he won’t agree to CIA pick.
CNN.
Despite publicly refusing to
criticize the remark, Sanders told the press staff that Sadler's comment was inap- propriate, according to several sources familiar with the meet- ing.
“It is beyond my comprehen- sion. It is one thing in the White
House for somebody to say something crude and stupid and disrespectful about an American hero,” Sen. Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It is another thing for them not to apolo- gize.”
McCain was diagnosed with cancer in July.
Sadler’s comments were denounced by some prominent Republicans, including Mitt Romney and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Sen. McCain this past week announced his opposition to Haspel’s nomination due to her role with the CIA’s use of so-called enhanced interroga- tion techniques, which Mc- Cain and others have labeled torture.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2018