Elections

Yamiche Alcindor: Biden’s Cabinet is like the ‘Avengers’ Rescuing Us From ‘Craziness’ Of Last Four Years

Published

1 year ago

November 25, 2020

Staff Writer

PBS White House correspondent and MSNBC contributor Yamiche Alcindor spoke with Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC Tuesday night about President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet picks, comparing them to the ‘Avengers,’ saying “it felt like we are being rescued from this craziness that we’ve all lived through in the last four years and now here are the superheroes to come and save us all.”

She continued by saying Biden’s picks are “a rebuke of President Trump.”

“They’re going to do their job and be good stewards of America’s role in this world and focus on American diplomacy, that in and of itself being a rebuke of President Trump — underscores what we’ve all been living through in the last four years, a president who wanted to be more isolationist, who wanted to pull back,” Alcindor said.

Biden has promised to create an administration which reflects American diversity. He said he is committed to choosing a diverse cabinet that “looks like America,” and his picks would create one of the most diverse foreign policy staffs in history.

“What we saw today, I was sitting in that room in Wilmington, I was thinking about the fact that Joe Biden in some ways, for his supporters, is fulfilling the promises that he made on the campaign trail,” Alcindor said.

“He said he wanted to have a cabinet that looked like America and there were people there on that stage, of course talking about all of their different accolades and their experience, but they were also talking about their families who survived the Holocaust, who survived coming from Cuba and fleeing communists, and talked about having gumbo diplomacy, cooking food, cooking southern food, as the ambassador was saying. All of those things are what America is about, is this melting pot. So another thing I would just say, I was talking to a Democrat who just said this also felt like the Avengers, it felt like we’re being rescued from this craziness that we’ve all lived through for the last four years and now here are the superheroes to come and save us all.”

Biden began choosing members for his cabinet on Monday and introduced them at an event Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware. “It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back,” Biden said Tuesday.

Elections

New York City Dems Push Law to Allow 800,000 Non-Citizens to Vote in Municipal Elections

The New York City Council will vote on December 9 on a law to allow green-card holders and residents with work permits to vote in municipal elections

Published

3 days ago

November 28, 2021

Staff Writer

New York’s Democratic party is battling over the constitutionality of voter laws. On December 9, the New York City Council will vote on a law to allow green-card holders and residents with work permits to vote in municipal elections.

“Around 808,000 New York City residents who have work permits or are lawful permanent residents would be eligible to vote under the legislation, which has the support of 34 of 51 council members, a veto-proof majority” reports Fox News.

“It’s important for the Democratic Party to look at New York City and see that when voting rights are being attacked, we are expanding voter participation,” Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a sponsor of the bill and Democrat who represents the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, told the New York Times. Rodriguez immigrated from the Dominican Republic and became a U.S. citizen in 2000.

Fox News reports:

Laura Wood, Chief Democracy Officer for the mayor’s office, said at a hearing on the bill in September that the law could violate the New York State Constitution, which states that voters must be U.S. citizens age 18 or older.

Mayor Bill de Blasio indicated he could veto the bill following the September hearing.
“We’ve done everything that we could possibly get our hands on to help immigrant New Yorkers—including undocumented folks—but…I don’t believe it is legal,” de Blasio told WNYC radio at the time.

Mayor-elect Eric Adams, however, submitted testimony to the September hearing in favor of the bill. “In a democracy, nothing is more fundamental than the right to vote and to say who represents you and your community in elected office…Currently, almost one million New Yorkers are denied this foundational right.”

The legislation was first introduced two years ago, but had not yet gained traction due to the legal concerns.