🧵🧵🧵I spent the day at the AKA convention in Dallas where VP Harris spoke and I am still hard pressed to find a Black voter who thinks it’s a good idea to push President Biden off the ticket even people who are mega fans of Harris. I am just not hearing this from Black voters.
First up is Dennisa Thomas.
She's a 31-year-old systems engineer from Kansas City, Missouri.
She told me she trusts VP Kamala Harris' judgement and is following Harris' lead in continuing to support the Democratic ticket as it currently stands.
Jill Nickerson is a 61-year-old retired school counselor in Wynne, Arkansas.
She continues to support the Biden/Harris ticket. She's sympathetic about Biden's debate performance, "If every time I didn't do my job the right way, I got fired or chewed out, I wouldn't have a job."
Chinella Webb is a 57-year-old MRI tech in Birmingham.
She dismissed the calls for Biden to step aside as "chatter" but added if Harris is tapped for the top of the ticket, she "is the perfect candidate to do whatever needs to be done."
"We are standing behind our president."
New York writer Ginger McKnight-Chavers told us, "It could be a cardboard cut out."
She didn't care, as long as the Democratic candidate could beat Trump.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Gov. Walz on trail stumping for Harris. Posting a few of his remarks that stuck out to me.
"These guys are just weird," he said before calling Trump/Vance "a threat to democracy" who will put people in danger. He said Trump is going to have his "ass handed to him" in Minnesota.
Walz accuses Trump of giving "a Fidel Castro like speech" at the RNC.
"Let's quit 2 year elections and go to 100 days of butt whipping," says Walz.
"We don't even have to sleep. We can sleep when we are dead."
He says Democrats will expand universal meals and health care access, move towards a clean energy economy
🧵🧵🧵 Here is what we heard at Essence Fest from Black Voters:
Jeri Paris, a retiree in New Orleans, emphatically supports President Biden.
She warned against “playing games” and said “the enemy is trying to confuse everybody.”
On Harris, she said, "Her time will come."
April Blash, a government employee in Washington D.C., said swapping Harris in may be a good option but she made clear she’ll support the Democratic nominee no matter who it is.
"It may be time to pass the torch," she said.
This man wouldn’t give us his name. His partner said they were worried about Trump supporters tracking them down but he was supportive of Biden.
Some news that you might miss given this busy Friday...
🚨🚨🚨The US House Office of Diversity and Inclusion will be dissolved as part of the government spending bill that passed today, the office’s director said in a statement.
Sesha Joi Moon said in a statement to CNN that her department will be replaced by the Office of Talent Management under the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer.
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion will close effective Monday, Moon said. The change comes as DEI programs and initiatives across the country are facing increasing attacks from critics and Republican lawmakers.
Some interesting background from @JacksonLeeTX18 to reporters on the hill on the last minute behind the scenes scramble to make #Juneteenth a holiday. Thank you @ArthurDelaneyHP for the audio.
"This bill has been introduced by me for at least 12 years."
"When the Senate asked if they could take my bill over to the Senate, we were happy for them to do so &they conformed it and then they saw a moment and that was this week. They made the point, we will pass #Juneteenth in whatever way we can in spite of a person who is objecting."
In shade to @RonJohnsonWI, @JacksonLeeTX18 says, "That person lost steam. We'll continue to call him that person. And so they got a Unanimous Consent to the desk."
It’s unusual for #McConnell to hold two news conferences in one week in Washington.
This suggests he’s sees Manchin’s movement on the #votingrights bill as a real threat. Ahead of his newser, he argues it will “supercharge the cancel culture.”
.@LindseyGrahamSC argues the provisions in the #ForThePeopleAct were created before any of these new state laws were created. He maintains efforts to characterize Republicans as racist for opposing it will fail. #votingrights