However, Pelosi on Monday vowed that Democrats would take “historic” action, deferring to leaders of the CBC and the Judiciary panel, which includes a number of African American lawmakers who have been leading voices on combating systemic racism since before they even came to Congress.
“This moment needs to be transformative,” Pelosi told her members in their first caucus call since protests gripped virtually every major city over the weekend. Pelosi described the current moment — compounded by the ongoing devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic — as a “tinderbox.”
Democrats on the call wholly endorsed responding as quickly as possible to the crisis, with plans for a national event like a rally, march or a “Day of Mourning” in the coming days.
Yet that is largely where the agreement ends. During the emotional call Monday afternoon, rank-and-file Democrats pitched a range of ideas ranging from limiting court protection for police, collecting policing data or pushing to repeal police officer “Bill of Rights” laws at the state level.
The reception was unclear, though, for a resolution drafted by CBC members, including by Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), to condemn police brutality and racial profiling. Pressley, as well as fellow progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) both touted the measure in Monday evening’s caucus call.
Ocasio-Cortez, who rarely speaks on the caucuswide calls, implored her colleagues that it was time to do “difficult but right things,” even if they weren’t popular politically, according to multiple Democrats on the call.
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), whose teenage son was shot and killed in 2012 by a white man in a dispute over loud car music, also grew emotional, crying as she pleaded with her colleagues to take action.
Democrats will hold another caucus call on Thursday focused solely on the issue of race in America.
The CBC is seeking to rally its colleagues — and the nation — behind long-overdue reforms to stop police killings of black men. Bass has tasked senior Democrats in her caucus to draft a broader legislative package with the aim of reaching the House floor.
„The solution to this should not necessarily be on the [Congressional Hispanic Caucus] or the CBC or the Asian-Pacific Caucus. It ought to be on the Congress of the United States,“ Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), a minister who served as the first black mayor of Kansas City, said in an interview Monday.
Cleaver added that many activists he’s spoken with in recent days have made clear their patience has run dry for policymakers who want to drag their feet.
„If I have heard it once, I have heard it 100 times over the last four or five days,” Cleaver said. “You were telling people to be calm. … But it’s the message you’ve been giving us for the last 25 or 30 years. And people are tired.”
Beyond legislation, the CBC is also planning messaging tactics to help amplify the message from protestors. Among their ideas is a march from the Capitol to the White House or the Department of Justice, a display of unity that Democrats hope would amplify calls for change from millions of Americans, rather than viral photos of fires and looting by small numbers of demonstrators.
Members also discussed holding a news conference as early as this week in Washington to honor Floyd by bowing their heads and raising their fists for the eight minutes that Derek Chauvin — the police officer charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter — had his knee on Floyd’s neck.
But Democrats are also facing major logistical hurdles, with members scattered across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic as the nation slowly emerges from more than two months of quarantine. One of their own — Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) — was hit with pepper spray while taking part in the protests in Columbus on Saturday, and other CBC members are demonstrating as well.
In a private email on Sunday, Bass told her members that they needed to confront “what appears to be open season on Black folks.”
“How do we have a very visible response under the conditions we are now experiencing?” Bass said in the email obtained by POLITICO, announcing an emergency caucus call on Monday afternoon. “Regardless we have to figure out how to visibly and forcefully respond.”
On an emergency CBC call on Monday afternoon, Omar — whose district includes parts of Minneapolis roiled by demonstrations — updated members on the situation there and called for charges against all four police officers involved in the killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in custody last week.
That prosecution is being led by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a former House Democrat and CBC member, whose seat now belongs to Omar.
Omar also invited CBC members to attend public services for Floyd later this week, according to a lawmaker on the call.
In a document sent by Bass to members Monday morning, the California Democrat said the caucus must be “visible IMMEDIATELY” and find ways to go beyond cable TV and social media posts. Proposals in the document included tweet storms, targeting young voters, and urging celebrities to assist in spreading their message.
„We have to ask ourselves and we have to ask the country at what point, at what point will be grow tired of seeing people literally executed on video and nothing happens,“ Bass said at a news conference with other Democrats and advocates on Monday. Bass said her „No. 1 tactic will be building collaboration“ across the Democratic caucus, working with groups like the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The crisis is made all the more urgent, Democrats say, by the global pandemic that has disproportionately hit African American communities.
The CBC, with more than 50 Democratic members, already includes some of the most respected names in the nation’s civil rights history, like Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.
But the group is facing perhaps its toughest moment since the civil rights movement – how to turn massive protests across the country into tangible action, while denouncing the violence, looting and fires that have erupted nightly in many cities.
They must also contend with President Donald Trump, who on Monday urged the country’s governors to respond more aggressively toward demonstrators.
The effort comes after a week of sometimes violent protests in dozens of U.S. cities while Trump tweeted about using “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” against protesters and encouraging police to use overwhelming force.
The majority of the protests across the country have been peaceful, but some supporters fear that viral videos of government buildings or a church aflame — some reportedly set by agitators unaffiliated with the protests — could turn public opinion against the national movement.
The CBC, which has a large roster of senior Democrats who have spent decades in the House, also faces a challenge in finding the right messenger. One of their most powerful voices, Lewis, is largely sidelined as he fights cancer. Clyburn is 80, while two African American senators — Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey — had previously focused their attention on running for the White House.
Source: politico.com
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