Politics

Barack Obama Works to Mobilize Black Caucus on Trade Pact

Published

10 years ago

May 7, 2015

In this April 2, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. The federal estate tax inspires a lot of heated political rhetoric for a tax that very few people actually pay. The House is scheduled to vote this week on a bill to repeal the estate tax, part of a package of bills highlighting Wednesdays deadline to file income tax returns. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

In this April 2, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

(Politico) – When little else is working, try the Congressional Black Caucus.

That’s a familiar pattern for the Obama administration: Backed into a corner on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama and his team lean on the four dozen African-American Democrats who are the core of his base. They did it in 2013 when the president was trying to get authority to bomb Syria. Now they’re doing it in the search for a few more votes as they try to cobble together a coalition to save the president’s trade agenda.

Obama, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx have been including CBC members in their outreach on trade for months, but they’ve stepped it up in recent weeks with the vote nearing on whether to give the president “fast-track” authority that he’d then immediately use to complete negotiations on a trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

It’s a frustratingly familiar spot for CBC members. They’ve grumbled since almost the day he was inaugurated about the distance Obama’s kept from them, and though some cluck about being the president’s perennial fallback plan, they’re still inclined to back him up in a pinch. They hear the case he’s making — that trade will directly help their districts through funding included for job training, education investment and new economic opportunities. But they’re also still Democrats who’ve got many of the same concerns that their non-African-American colleagues do.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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4 days ago

June 7, 2025

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.