With Fox’s Peter Doocy away from Tuesday’s White House press briefing, interest shifted elsewhere for NewsBusters and, thankfully, CNN political analyst and Grio correspondent April Ryan beclowned herself with questions from the left on civil rights, voting, and white supremacists. This included the insane assertion from Ryan to Press Secretary Jen Psaki that voting rights have “collapsed” with GOP laws and the failure of the For the People Act.
Ryan began her set of questioning with one of several on behalf of herself and the Congressional Black Caucus, sucking up to Psaki by saying that President “ran for office on the issue of race from Charlottesville” and thus wanted to know whether he’s “involved in” “an effort on the Hill to strengthen the nation’s oldest federal civil rights law of 1866.”
Psaki quickly disappointed Ryan, saying that while the administration is “very appreciative of the efforts by a number of the leaders who are working in discussions,” she didn’t “have [any calls] to read out for you.”
In turn, Ryan falsely claimed that “voting rights” has “collapsed” and “KKK members...march[ed] in Philadelphia over the weekend” just as reparations and police reform have yet to be enacted.
Despite the left’s months-long, tiresome, and erroneous campaign that voting in America is under attack that harkens back to the Jim Crow era with entire races being prevented from voting, their efforts to pass H.R. 1/S. 1 appears to have failed in spectacular fashion with the facts having won out.
And on what took place in Philadelphia, it was actually a white supremacist group known as Patriot Front and captured by the city’s ABC affiliate WPVI (via reporter Becca Hendrickson who, in the interest of transparency, attended the same high school as this author).
Nonetheless, Psaki tried to assuage Ryan and the rest of the far-left base (including race hustlers) (click “expand”):
PSAKI: Well, I would say first, April, that, as you know because you’ve covered it closely, one of the President’s key priorities, one of the key pillars of his presidency, is racial equity and — and updating and addressing what he feels are systemic issues in how we govern and in society. And I would say to touch on a couple of the things that you’ve noted, one, on voting rights. You know, we — I expect we’ll have some more announcements to make later this week about the President’s and the Vice President’s schedule and opportunities they will take to continue to use their platforms and the bully pulpit to advocate for, push for, take — use every lever of government to move those initiatives forward. But certainly, he will remain engaged closely with civil rights leaders about the range of priorities that you just discussed as well as with leaders in Congress. Even though things are hard and things look stalled at moments, he doesn’t give up. That’s not who he is, neither is — neither that who the Vice President is. So they’ll continue to press on moving all these agenda items forward.
RYAN: Is there a concern by the Democratic base for the Democratic base that feels that he became President standing on these pillars and now they’re in jeopardy? Is there concern by this White House about what the Democratic base is feeling as they see voting rights stalled, as they see policing stalled, as they see the issue of reparations not moving as fast as they want and other issues?
PSAKI: I would say first, the President shares their frustration about the fact that voting rights, making voting more accessible to more people across the country is a no brainer. He agrees with the frustration that there are more — is more we can do to put in place reforms on policing, something that he feels is long overdue and he would like to sign a bill into law. And his role as President is to continue to use his voice, his — the bully pulpit, and his platforms to advocate for moving these things forward.
To close out the briefing, the Chicago Sun-Times’s Lynn Sweet raised the deadly and rampant crime in Chicago, but other than gun control and throwing money at the problem, Psaki tried to downplay the city’s out-of-control conditions on the fact that it’s summertime.
“We’ve seen rates go up over the last 18 months around the country, including in the city of Chicago. And as you know, Lynn, from covering this, we see spikes in violent crime typically during summer months, often unfortunately during holiday weekends, and we saw that over the last weekend,” explained Psaki.
To see the relevant briefing transcript from July 6, click “expand.”
White House press briefing
July 6, 2021
1:43 p.m. EasternAPRIL RYAN: Back on the issue of race and the hypersensitivity around the issue, this President ran for office on the issue of race from Charlottesville. With that said, there is now an effort on the Hill to strengthen the nation’s oldest federal civil rights law of 1866. Is he involved in that? What is his conversation about this with senators, as well as congressional leaders? Has he talked about that with them? And what does he feel about it?
JEN PSAKI: Well, we’re very appreciative of the efforts by a number of the leaders who are working in discussions about updating of the oldest civil rights law, as you — as you noted. But in terms of specific conversations with the President, I just don’t have anything to read out for you.
RYAN: Is this important at this moment, especially to strengthen the nation’s oldest civil rights law as voting rights is — I don’t know what you call it — collapsed, as policing is held up. There’s a call for reparations. There’s so many things that the Congressional Black Caucus is trying to push forward with their agenda, as well as these issues seem to be more civil rights and humanitarian versus policy. Is this President concerned at this time about that? Does he think that this will bring more attention to those issues? Also, in light of KKK members and white supremacists marching in Philadelphia over the weekend on the 4th of July?
PSAKI: Well, I would say first, April, that, as you know because you’ve covered it closely, one of the President’s key priorities, one of the key pillars of his presidency, is racial equity and — and updating and addressing what he feels are systemic issues in how we govern and in society. And I would say to touch on a couple of the things that you’ve noted, one, on voting rights. You know, we — I expect we’ll have some more announcements to make later this week about the President’s and the Vice President’s schedule and opportunities they will take to continue to use their platforms and the bully pulpit to advocate for, push for, take — use every lever of government to move those initiatives forward. But certainly, he will remain engaged closely with civil rights leaders about the range of priorities that you just discussed as well as with leaders in Congress. Even though things are hard and things look stalled at moments, he doesn’t give up. That’s not who he is, neither is — neither that who the Vice President is. So they’ll continue to press on moving all these agenda items forward.
RYAN: Is there a concern by the Democratic base for the Democratic base that feels that he became President standing on these pillars and now they’re in jeopardy? Is there concern by this White House about what the Democratic base is feeling as they see voting rights stalled, as they see policing stalled, as they see the issue of reparations not moving as fast as they want and other issues?
PSAKI: I would say first, the President shares their frustration about the fact that voting rights, making voting more accessible to more people across the country is a no brainer. He agrees with the frustration that there are more — is more we can do to put in place reforms on policing, something that he feels is long overdue and he would like to sign a bill into law. And his role as President is to continue to use his voice, his — the bully pulpit, and his platforms to advocate for moving these things forward.
(....)
2:02 p.m. Eastern
LYNN SWEET: And then on another very serious note in Chicago, it’s had its most violent weekend this year, 104 shot, 19 killed. I understand Mayor Lori Lightfoot will be meeting with the President at O’Hare. I understand the administration did roll out many things to do to help combat crime in cities like Chicago, but is there something more that perhaps the President may be able to bring or discuss with Mayor Lightfoot when they meet tomorrow?
(....)
2:04 p.m. Eastern
SWEET: And then crime in Chicago and the meeting with Mayor Lightfoot.
PSAKI: Mm-hmm. Well, I believe that there — you mentioned a greet at the airport, so I’ll have to check and see how long that is allocated for that meeting, and certainly he is always receptive to what any elected official wants to raise and what they want to discuss. I will note that the President continues to work to address violent crime. We’ve seen rates go up over the last 18 months around the country, including in the city of Chicago. And as you know, Lynn, from covering this, we see spikes in violent crime typically during summer months, often unfortunately during holiday weekends, and we saw that over the last weekend. But I will say that he will continue to advocate for, and the mayor may want to discuss this. I guess, we’ll see or not. But increases in his budget, including an additional $300 million more for the cops program than what I would say was approved in the prior Trump administration budget, so he — he had 237 billion in his — in his, million, sorry, got a little high there, million in his budget and the President’s proposing 537 million in his budget because he wants cops funding to go out to communities across the country. He will also continue to work to empower ATF. He’s proposed an additional $70 million increase over the last Trump budget for ATF to ensure that they have the funding and resources they need to crack down on illegal guns and I know gun violence is a huge driver of the crime in Chicago. And finally, he’s going to continue to advocate for supporting evidence-based community violence intervention programs that are proven to reduce gun violence in a range of communities. But I’m sure he’ll be happy to discuss components of his budget. She may have different things on her agenda when they see each other tomorrow.
SWEET: And he’s not going into the city proper? He’s just to — those are the two stops?
PSAKI: That is correct.
