Biden Aide feels the heat from all sides in the White House equality vote

Photographer: Erin Scott / Bloomberg

As President Joe Biden tries to address racial inequalities across the United States, he has turned to former Congressman Cedric Richmond to help keep his promise to end discriminatory practices ranging from housing to rights. voting, a complicated task because of the risk of alienating Republicans who need their support. on key legislative priorities.

Richmond, a Louisiana lawmaker who led the Black Caucus of Congress during the Trump administration, heads the Biden Office of Public Engagement. There, he is the counterpart of outside groups and activists willing to hold the president accountable for his promise to confront the nation’s deep racial divisions.

Along with his promise to fight inequality in all policies, Biden campaigned to heal the nation’s political cracks and work across the aisle to restore civilization in Washington. But many Republicans have rejected the president’s call to address racial disparities – and even the idea that institutionalized racism exists – establishing a potentially persistent conflict for Richmond to negotiate.

“We’re listening to everyone and we’ll make contributions, but that doesn’t mean we compromise our values,” Richmond said in an interview. “I will give you an old African proverb as a way of thinking about it: when two elephants fight only the grass suffers. Therefore, we want to make sure that people are not the grass, that you have an endless struggle and that they never receive help ”.

Biden has pledged to preside over the coronavirus pandemic and revive the US economy after the crisis dealt a disproportionate blow to minorities.

But apart from immediate relief, civil rights groups are demanding structural changes that will help resolve racial economic disparities and rights in the future. This includes the passage of a new voting rights law to expand access to the polls, even as Republican legislatures try to take steps to tighten voting rules, measures that would disproportionately affect minority groups, according to the its defenders.

“It is important that President Biden has called racism one of the crises he has to attack, along with Covid, along with the climate crisis and the economy,” said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the National Office. of the Advance Project, a civil rights office group. “So our job, as external groups, is to make sure they are real with their commitment.”

As the main conduit between Biden and outside liberal groups pushing to undo former President Donald Trump’s policies and advance a progressive agenda, Richmond will address issues ranging from health inequality to police brutality. Dianis said other important figures in the administration on these issues include Catherine Lhamon, who is in charge of racial justice and equity in the Home Affairs Council; Kristen Clarke, Biden’s candidate for Deputy Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division; and Vanita Gupta, her nominee as deputy attorney general.

“It could be what my father used to call a young man of all trades, a head teacher. In baseball terminology, more than a useful player, “said Richmond, a former college football player who helped the Democrats. they dominate Republicans in their annual charity game.

‘Transforming President’

Biden, Richmond said, “said over and over again on the campaign route that he wants to be a very transformative president, that he wants to empower groups that were generally not capable. And he wants his legacy to be that of the most powerful president he has ever ruled. “

Biden made significant moves in his first weeks in office, publishing guidelines to rescind Trump’s ban on diversity training for federal workers, prevent housing discrimination, and end the use of private prisons. The president has infused his response to the pandemic with measures to tackle the excessive toll of the virus on black and brown Americans and has outlined plans to invest $ 150 billion in small minority-owned businesses and increase spending on historically black universities and colleges.

Read more: Biden aims for housing, private prisons in the first equality movements

Richmond said these first steps are a key signal to the public that Biden’s commitment to working towards equity was serious.

“It simply came to our notice then. This means that we seek, observe, and are intent on equity across government. So that means advertising, acquisition, that means education, ”Richmond said in an interview. “But even within our Covid package and Covid response, so far we have also done so through a goal of racial equity.”

Richmond, 47, graduated from Morehouse College, a historically black College and University of Atlanta, before graduating with a law degree from Tulane University in New Orleans.

He was first elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives when he was 26 and served for 11 years before being elected to the United States House in 2010. presided over the Black Caucus of Congress from 2017 to 2019, a period characterized by deep racial struggle, as Trump’s divisive rhetoric helped fuel a resurgence of white supremacism.

Under Richmond’s leadership, the group delivered 125 pages inform Trump by rejecting his “what do you have to lose?” launching black voters during their 2016 campaign. The report was titled, “We Have Much to Lose: Solutions to Advancing Black Families in the 21st Century.”

The group advocates for many of the issues on Biden’s agenda, such as reforming criminal justice, eliminating health disparities, and resolving the wealth gap. But Richmond can also help Biden get to the hallway; as a legislator, he cultivated relationships with key Republicans, including Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second GOP member in the House, who considers Richmond a “close friend.”

Battle for voting rights

Republicans have already pointed out that an upward battle awaits Biden’s initiatives in the race.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow a ground vote on the voting rights law when his party controlled the chamber under Trump. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas has criticized Biden’s plan to end systemic housing discrimination and increase ownership of communities of color.

“Is it ever appropriate for the government to treat people differently depending on their race?” Cotton asked during a confirmation hearing for Marcia Fudge, Biden’s candidate for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

And Republican Senator Rand Paul said Biden’s inaugural speech, largely focused on inequality, amounted to an allegation that Republicans were racist.

But Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist, said Biden and Richmond could win “surprised” votes from Republicans on some equity measures. For example, he said former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, with whom he previously worked, sponsored legislation with Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, on reactivating cold-era cases of Civil Rights.

In Richmond, Biden has “a shrewd politician” who can handle the challenge, said James Clyburn, the third Democrat in the House.