Nov. 20, 2016

Trump Taps Sen. Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General
Congressional Black Caucus and LDF Call Him a Racist

By Frederick H. Lowe

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions

CBC Chair G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.)

LDF Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions U.S. Attorney General, and his selection was immediately blasted by the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) given Sessions’ long history of making racist statements about African-Americans and his support of the Klu Klux Klan, a White terrorist organization.

President-elect Trump announced Nov. 18 that he planned to nominate Sen. Sessions, one of Trump’s earliest supporters.  The junior senator from Alabama is a 69-year-old Republican. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996. Prior to taking a seat in the Senate, Sessions, a native of Selma, Ala., served as Alabama Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama from 1981 to 1993.

Opposition to African-Americans

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund issued a three-page rebuke of Sessions in which the organization posted a timeline listing his opposition to hate crime legislation, same sex marriage and the violence against women act.  Most of Sessions’ hatred, however, has been directed at African Americans.

In 1986, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Sessions’ nomination to serve as a U.S. district court judge in Alabama based on his record of opposing civil rights, making racist comments and general concerns about his ability to preside impartially, particularly with respect to civil rights and rights of African Americans, LDF reported.

During the same hearing, Thomas Figures, an African-American Assistant U.S. attorney, testified that Sessions had called him “boy.” Sessions also said he approved of the Klu Klux Klan until he learned members smoked marijuana. Figures said he took that as a serious statement.

Also at the 1986 hearing, Sessions called the NAACP and ACLU “un-American” and “communist-inspired” groups that “forced civil rights down the throats of people.”

“Jeff Sessions has a decades-long record—from his early days as a prosecutor to his present role as a Senator—of opposing civil rights and equality,” said Sherrilyn Ifill,  LDF president and director-counsel.”It is unimaginable that he could be entrusted to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for this nation’s civil rights laws. This is another signal from the incoming administration that it is not only prepared to turn its back on equality, it is actively working to continue to sow division and undo decades of progress.”

Congressional Black Caucus Opposes the Nomination

The Congressional Black Caucus also took issue with Sessions’ nomination.

“We face an alarming choice in the selection of Senator Jeff Sessions to serve as the chief law enforcer for the United States of America,” said G.K. Butterfield, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Senator Sessions’ civil rights record is appalling and should disqualify him from Senate confirmation.”

Butterfield added:  “Senators Sessions has continuously obstructed the progress that we’ve made since the historic Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s. Senator Sessions has blocked legislative efforts to ensure racial equality in minority communities, including opposition to President Obama’s judicial nominations and full enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.”

Butterfield predicted Sessions will face an uphill battle to be confirmed.  But he is a member of the Senate, and it is unlikely his fellow senators will deny him the nomination. Already, many of them were singing his praises.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called Sessions “principled, forthright, and hardworking.”

“He cares deeply about his country and the department he will be nominated to lead,” McConnell said.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said that he has known Sessions for more than two decades.

“He has the experience and ability to serve as Attorney General of the United States,” Graham said. “He was an early supporter of Donald Trump in the Senate and he has earned the right to serve President-elect Trump and our nation at the highest level.”

David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, also praised Sessions’ nomination. Duke said Sessions’ nomination is the first step in taking “America back.”

Nov. 13, 2016

The U.S. Electoral College System is Rooted in Protecting Slavery
By Frederick H. Lowe

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In Tuesday’s election, Donald Trump won 289 Electoral College votes, more than the 270 needed for him to become the nation’s 45th president. Trump will move into the White House on January 20, 2017.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Trump’s Democratic opponent for president, won the popular vote by more than 1.8 million votes, according to the latest count, but she gave a concession speech, acknowledging Trump as the winner of the election.How can this be?

The Electoral College system, which was founded by James Madison, the nation’s fourth president and one of the country’s founding fathers, is based on protecting slavery, according to numerous history scholars. Madison was a Virginia slaveholder.In 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, slaves accounted for 40 percent of Virginia’s population, making it the most-populous of the 13 original colonies.

Some of Constitutional Convention attendees wanted the American people to vote directly for president.Madison, however, argued that a direct vote would disadvantage Southern states because Northern states had more White men, individuals allowed to vote at the time, thus more voters. Blacks couldn’t vote.Attendees reached a compromise that counted the whole number of free persons in the states as well as “three fifths” of all other persons, all of them black slaves. As a result, Southern states were given more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and more electors who selected the president.

The meeting of the electors is where they vote for president and vice president, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The Electoral College now consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President.The Civil War ended slavery and the three-fifths of a man compromise, but the Electoral College is still in place.The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors.

Tuesday’s election is the fifth time in the history of presidential politics that one candidate won the Electoral College vote and his opponent won the popular vote.The Electoral College’s three-fifths clause enabled Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder, to defeat John Adams, who opposed slavery, in Adam’s bid for re-election in 1800.In 2000, Democrat Al Gore won 539,000 more votes than Republican George W. Bush, but Bush won more Electoral College votes.

Following Tuesday’s election, Change.org launched an online petition drive to persuade Electoral College electors to cast their ballots for Clinton on December 19th because she won the popular vote. On this date, electors vote in their individual states.Change.org wants 3 million people to sign the petition. If the electors don’t vote the way their state voted, they  will be fined, Change.org noted.One of the critics of the Electoral College is Trump.  In 2012, he said the Electoral College was ‘a disaster for democracy.’

Nov. 15, 2016

As Protests Rage, Obama Has Urged Trump to Reach Out 
By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama, in his first press conference following the election of Donald Trump as president, declined to assess President-Elect Trump in the same manner as he did during the campaign. As protests continue around the country Obama has advised Trump to now reach out to racial minorities and women.

“I did say to him, as I've said publicly, that because of the nature of the campaigns, and the bitterness and ferocity of the campaigns, that it's really important to try to send some signals of unity, and to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign,” Obama told the packed White House Press Room. “And I think that's something that he will want to do.  But this is all happening real fast.  He's got commitments to supporters that helped to get him here, and he's going to have to balance those.”

After months of railing that Trump was “unfit to be president” Obama now indicates what’s most important is the peaceful transfer of power.

“Look, the people have spoken.  Donald Trump will be the next President, the 45th President of the United States,” he said. “And it will be up to him to set up a team that he thinks will serve him well and reflect his policies.  And those who didn’t vote for him have to recognize that that's how democracy works.  That's how this system operates.”

Trump’s vitriolic manner of speaking and acting appeared to immediately change after the election. In his victory speech, he promised to be president for “all of America.” Despite the ugliness of the campaign between him and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he praised her for a hard-fought race; then said America owes her a “debt of gratitude” for many years of service to the country.

In a White House meeting with President Obama last week – the first time the two had met in person – Trump called Obama a “very good man” and said he even looks forward to receiving counsel from him.

Obama was not as flattering, but was clear that he intends to do everything possible to insure Trump’s success. He also expressed confidence that Trump intends to govern fairly despite his campaign antics that insulted women, Blacks, handicapped people, and veterans among others. But, Obama said he believes the Donald Trump that America saw on the campaign trail will not be the same Donald Trump in the White House.

“And my advice, as I said, to the President-elect when we had our discussions was that campaigning is different from governing.  I think he recognizes that.  I think he's sincere in wanting to be a successful President and moving this country forward,” Obama said. “And I don’t think any President ever comes in saying to themselves, I want to figure out how to make people angry or alienate half the country.  I think he's going to try as best he can to make sure that he delivers, not only for the people who voted for him, but for the people at large.  And the good thing is, is that there are going to be elections coming up, so there's a built-in incentive for him to try to do that.”

Some are not as convinced as Obama. The NAACP, the day after the election, reflected on Trump’s hateful words during the election and vowed to watch and hold Trump accountable.

“The 2016 campaign has made racism regular, anti-Semitism standard, xenophobia unexceptional, and misogyny mainstream,” said NAACP President Cornell Brooks in a statement. “Now, we must do everything within our power as a movement to prevent these social poisons from tearing our country apart. During this critical period of transition, we are calling upon President-elect Donald J. Trump to speak and act with the moral clarity necessary to silence the dog-whistle racial politics that have characterized recent months and have left many of our fellow citizens snarling at one another in anger and even whimpering in fear.”

The statement concluded, “We are ready and willing to work with a new administration to protect and advance civil and human rights for all Americans. We are also prepared to fight any attempt to roll back the progress we've been working toward for more than a century.”

Trump has sent mixed messages in his initial appointments. On one hand, he has appointed Republican Chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff. On the other hand he has appointed Stephen Bannon, the head of the racist and White supremacist website, Breitbart, for nearly a decade. Bannon had run Trump’s campaign during the final months. At the end of the campaign, the racist campaign remarks had gotten so bad that even the official newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan endorsed Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump has already back away from or softened at least three of his hardline campaign promises. Instead of completely repealing the entire Affordable Health Care plan, better known as “Obamacare”, he now says he hopes to keep key parts of it; instead of a mass deportation force for illegal immigrants; he now says he will initially look to deport only criminals. He has also backed away from his threat to appoint a special prosecutor and have Hillary Clinton investigated and possibly jailed. He said in a CBS interview that the Clintons are “good people” and “I don’t want to hurt them.”

Continuing in his conciliatory tone, Obama explained how he perceived Trump’s politics.

“So given that President-elect Trump is now trying to balance what he said in the campaign and the commitments he made to his supporters with working with those who disagreed with him, and members of Congress, and reaching out to constituencies that didn’t vote for him, I think it's important for us to let him make his decisions,” Obama said. “And I think the American people will judge over the course of the next couple of years whether they like what they see, and whether these are the kinds of policies and this is the direction that they want to see the country go in.”

Nov. 14, 2016

Special Commentary

White Supremacists Think Their Man Won the White House
By Richard Cohen

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Southern Poverty Law Center

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - On Nov. 9, I watched Hillary Clinton give a gracious concession speech, one that was filled with hope and a touch of reassurance. It was, in some ways, a celebration of our democracy and its stability, which depends on the peaceful transition of power.

President Barack Obama, who campaigned fiercely against Donald Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, has been equally magnanimous, reminding us of the incredible dignity and grace with which he led our country over the past eight years.

I share the sentiments they expressed. We do need to give Trump a chance, for the good of our country. Maybe he will surprise us and build bridges, not walls.

But we can’t suddenly forget or forgive what he said during the campaign.

We can’t forget that Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and killers, or that he said a federal judge can’t decide a lawsuit fairly because he is a “Mexican” (he was born in Indiana).

We can’t forget that his signature campaign promise is to build a wall at the border with Mexico.

We can’t forget that he proposed banning Muslims from entering our country or that he suggested that the “Muslim community” was complicit in the terrorist attack in Orlando.

We can’t forget the despicable way he talks about women or that he bragged about sexually assaulting them.

We can’t forget that he mocked people with disabilities.

We can’t forget that he exploited ugly, racist stereotypes when he described African-American communities as “war zones” and “hell.”

We can’t forget that he failed to immediately disavow the endorsement of David Duke, a neo-Nazi and probably the most well known White supremacist in America.

We can’t forget that he named as his campaign manager a man who runs a website catering to the alt-right, a rebranded White nationalist movement.

We can’t forget that he re-circulated racist and anti-Semitic tweets.

We can’t forget that he went on Alex Jones’ radio show and told the far-right radio host that his “reputation is amazing.” Jones is, in fact, a fabulist, a con artist known for propagating wild conspiracy theories, such as his claim that the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was the work of the government.

The point is, in Trump we suddenly face a president-elect who has been wallowing in the cesspool of hate and extremism.

White supremacists who backed his candidacy are jumping for joy. They think they now have their man in the White House.

Andrew Anglin, proprietor of the Daily Stormer, a truly sickening website popular among neo-Nazis, declared, “Our Glorious Leader has ascended to God Emperor. Make no mistake about it: we did this.”

David Duke was equally exultant, tweeting that “our people played a HUGE role in electing Trump!”

Kevin MacDonald, an outspoken anti-Semite and former professor, wrote,  “This is an amazing victory. Fundamentally, it is a victory of White people over the oligarchic, hostile elites.”

We can’t afford to take these statements as the ravings of extremists on the fringes of society. They are now at the gates.

But it’s not just sieg-heiling Nazis and cross-burning Klansmen who should trouble Americans concerned about what a Trump victory portends. It’s also the more polite, suit-wearing extremists who move in mainstream political circles and already have their nose under the Trump tent.

They’re people like Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state who birthed the viciously discriminatory, unconstitutional anti-immigrant laws enacted by Arizona, Alabama and other states several years ago; and Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state who is now a senior fellow at the rabidly anti-LGBT  Family Research Council. Both are reportedly serving as key members of Trump’s transition team.

As is customary, Trump has pledged to be a president “for all Americans.”

If he truly means it, he must first boot the extremists out of his tent and tell them in no uncertain terms that they will have no voice or place in his administration. If he does that, perhaps he can begin to stanch the bleeding from the wounds he ripped open in our country.

But, given the early signs, we’re not counting on it.

No, we’re going on what Trump has been saying all along. The time is now for progressives everywhere to unite and fight with everything we have.

Steve Cohen is president of the Southern Poverty Law Center