On Biden and Black men
The president and his campaign have worked to shore up his support with a voting bloc Trump sees as susceptible to his message. Three Democratic Black men tell me why he’s wrong.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! I’m Michael Jones and this is Once Upon a Hill, a newsletter about congressional politics and the impact of federal policy on diverse communities. I hope you had a fantastic weekend.
In tonight’s edition, I explore Black voter engagement ahead of the start of Black History Month and the first-in-the-nation South Carolina Democratic primary election this weekend as politicians ramp up this key bloc that could determine not only who wins the presidential election but which party holds the House and the Senate.
President Joe Biden spent the weekend in South Carolina, which jumped Iowa and New Hampshire this primary election cycle under national committee rules, where he visited a barbershop on Saturday afternoon before giving a speech at the state party dinner that evening. The next morning, the president went to church with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the legendary kingmaker whose endorsement three days before the 2020 South Carolina Democratic primary energized Biden’s flailing campaign after two disappointing. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Biden’s stop in the Palmetto State came after he traveled to North Carolina to discuss his economic agenda and make an unscheduled drop-by at the home of a Black Dad and educator whose student loans were canceled. (The sons documented it all in viral TikTok clips.)
Vice President Kamala Harris has spent plenty of time in South Carolina too. She traveled to the state to file the campaign paperwork required for the president and for her to be on the primary ballot. She delivered the keynote in Myrtle Beach at the annual retreat of the Women’s Missionary Society of the 7th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to kick off the year.
The following week, on King Day, she was a guest of the South Carolina NAACP at the South Carolina statehouse. (During that visit, she surprised the top-ranked University of South Carolina women’s basketball team at their shootaround before their game that night. And she’ll be in Orangeburg, home to two historically Black institutions of higher education—Claflin University and South Carolina State University—on Friday for a campaign event and to meet with community faith leaders.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and the broader Republican movement see an opportunity with Black voters, especially men, in the upcoming election—not because they produced any new policy positions worth joining the mostly white GOP tent. But because they think Black men will vote off economic vibes this fall instead of reality. Trump also sees Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a Trump-rival-turned-surrogate, as a visual reminder that he’s down with the Black community. I wonder if Trump knows how most Black people feel about Scott though.
I spoke with three politically plugged-in Black men with ties not only to political heavyweights like former President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) but also deep roots with the Black men in their outside the Beltway to get their take on the difference between pandering and engaging and much more.
Keep reading for my complete coverage, but first…
JORDAN DRONE ATTACK • In case you missed it, three US service members were killed and at least 34 were injured on Sunday in a drone strike by an Iran-backed militia in northeast Jordan. The attack struck troop living quarters at a small military camp near the Syrian border, contributing to the high casualties. The strike is the first time US troops were killed in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel and the start of the war in Gaza.
President Biden said in a statement and to congregants at a South Carolina church yesterday that the US would respond. But Biden is under enormous pressure from the right to directly strike Iran (the Iranian government claims it had nothing to do with the attack) and from his left to avoid escalating the Israel-Hamas war into a broader conflict involving American troops.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters this afternoon that the president is considering his options but declined to disclose any details about the scale and location of the response.
Since the Hamas attacks, Iranian-backed Houthi militants have launched more than 150 separate attacks, including commercial ships in the Red Sea and American military targets in Iraq and Syria. Biden signed off earlier this month on more than a dozen US-led coalition strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. The strikes were the first military response to ongoing and escalating attacks since the start of the war.
MAYORKAS IMPEACHMEMT • The House Republican-led Homeland Security Committee will vote to advance two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the House floor for what it describes as his “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.”
House Homeland Security Democrats and Democratic Leader Jeffries held a press conference this afternoon to slam the upcoming vote, which is expected to clear the committee; House GOP leadership looks to have the numbers for the full House vote too. (House Republicans can only lose two votes if all members are present.)
“Democrats are real concerned that this is just one of those efforts to confuse the public that something is going wrong at the Department of Homeland Security,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the House Homeland Security ranking member said during the press conference. “Our secretary works at the direction of the president. [Mayorkas’s] policies are [Biden’s] policies and he carries them out. So this notion that carrying out the direction of your boss somehow is an impeachable offense is wrong.”
The impeachment occurs as Mayorkas has been one the key negotiators of the border security deal House Republicans demanded but have outright rejected without seeing the text because Donald Trump wants to campaign on the border crisis. The House has been uninvolved with negotiations because their position since Biden submitted his supplemental request to Congress has been HR 2, which received no Democratic votes in the House, has not received consideration in the Senate and received a veto threat from the president before the House GOP passed it along party lines last summer.
Mayorkas would become the first cabinet official to be impeached since 1876.
SENATE BORDER SECURITY DEAL • We’re still waiting for the text on a bipartisan agreement between three senators to plus-up funding and empower the president with new authorities to secure the southern border.
President Biden said in a statement that the deal the senators have negotiated would give him new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed, and he would use it the day he signed the bill into law.
“What’s been negotiated would—if passed into law—be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country.”
Critics of the rumored provisions say if true amount to repackaged measures from the Trump era that do little to slow down irregular migration. Democrats, while likely to be pleased that the bill includes additional work visas so undocumented immigrants can work while waiting for hearings on their asylum claims, it excludes relief for people known as Dreamers who were brought to the US as kids without documentation and additional pathways to citizenship.
Even if the Senate somehow musters 60 votes to approve the agreement, the likelihood that the House will take is shrinking by each day. Donald Trump issued another call for congressional Republicans to reject the bill this afternoon. House Democratic Leader Jeffries said he would wait until the bill text is released and he had a chance to speak to his members before weighing in.
It would amount to four wasted months of negotiations. Remember: It was House Republicans who demanded border policy changes before it would allow the president’s request for emergency funding for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Taiwan.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE • The White House announced eight key actions it has taken since President Biden signed an executive order three months ago to manage risks to safety and security and to innovate AI for good. Agencies also reported that they have completed all of the 90-day actions tasked by the EO and advanced other vital directives that the order tasked over a longer timeframe.
The announcement comes days after Taylor Swift was the target of an explicit deepfake and the administration called on Congress to pass legislation to deal with the issue. (Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) will be on CNN tomorrow at 7:50 a.m. to discuss his legislation to create legal consequences for the spread of AI-generated explicit images, which also impact everyday young women and girls who don’t have the same platform as Swift.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday on Big Tech and the online child sexual exploitation crisis (The CEOs of Twitter, TikTok, Snap, Meta and Discord will be witnesses.)
Sen. LaPhonza Butler (D-Calif.), who has made young people a focus of her legislative work, told me in a statement that while social media has revolutionized the way the world connects, it’s also enabled rampant online harassment and abuse and expanded the reach of harmful content.
“I’m hoping to have a frank conversation about how tech companies and Congress can work together to make sure our young people are enjoying the benefits of technology without sacrificing their mental health and safety.”
ABORTION RIGHTS • The Supreme Court announced it will hear oral arguments on whether the abortion drug mifepristone will maintain its FDA approval on March 26.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August to mifepristone, including by requiring in-person dispensing after the FDA allowed abortion pills to be dispensed by mail during the COVID-19 public health emergency—instead of requiring patients to receive it at a medical clinic or hospital.
The three-judge panel’s decision also shortened the window mifepristone can be used from the 10th week of pregnancy to the seventh and requires the drug to be administered in the presence of a physician.
However, it overturned a portion of a lower court’s ruling that would have completely revoked the FDA’s approval of the drug used in the majority of abortions, which has been in effect since 2000.
As I reported at the time of the Fifth Circuit ruling: Mifepristone is still broadly available now. The court’s decision is on hold right now as the case works its way to the Supreme Court. But if the ruling stands, it would represent yet another significant rollback in abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer.
And last but not least…
Today is the 15th anniversary of the Lily Ledbetter Act, the first bill former President Obama signed into law that restored the protection against pay discrimination that was stripped away in a 2007 Supreme Court decision. Read President Biden’s statement on the milestone and a White House fact sheet on its work to advance gender pay equity.
The San Francisco 49ers are headed back to the Super Bowl in two weeks to face the Kansas City Chiefs, the defending champions who beat the 49ers in the big game four years ago. San Francisco defeated the upstart Detroit Lions on Sunday in a comeback for the ages. Prior to the game Michigan and California Democrats waged a few friendly bets;
Rep. Debbie Dingell owes former Speaker Nancy Pelosi chocolates from Sanders Candy.
Rep. Dan Kildee has to wear a Niners jersey on the House floor, per a pact he made with Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters will provide Sens. Alex Padilla and Butler with an authentic Michigan meal: Faygo Pop, Michigan craft beer, authentic Coney Island hot dogs and Better Made chips.
In less lighthearted news, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Rep. Shontel Brown both announced their homes were the targets of separate swatting attempts. While swatting, which involves prank-calling emergency services in an attempt to activate a massive law enforcement response to a particular address, affects members of Congress of both parties in both chambers, the tactic is part of a broader threat of political violence that’s increased in the MAGA era. I wrote about it in my latest column for Courier Newsroom.
Now, back to Black voter engagement…
Michael Blake, founding CEO of ATLAS Strategy Group and a former Obama aide and New York assembly member, told me it starts with seeing the humanity in Black men.