The NPR Politics Podcast - Congress Searches For How To Respond To Calls From Protesters

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

Despite curfews imposed across the country, protesters continue to gather to demand action after the death of George Floyd. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called on the the Congressional Black Caucus to draft legislation while President Trump continues to focus on quelling the protests.This episode: campaign correspondent Scott Detrow, White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe, and congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio stationLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. It's 2.08 Eastern on Wednesday, June 3rd. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover the campaign. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Kelsey Snell. I cover Congress. Despite curfews set by governors and mayors across the country, protesters once again gathered in cities coast to coast last night. Out in the streets in Washington, D.C., the crowds grew.

Many people told NPR they joined for the first time in response to how President Trump had responded to the earlier protests. Right when I got the news that the president was deploying the military to D.C., I think something clicked. It was like, it's time to just get out and do whatever you can. And inside the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked the Congressional Black Caucus to prioritize legislation to address the problem. Oh, it's time.

It's a time for us to address. And that's why the concerns that were being expressed by the protesters. This is not an incident, a single incident. We know it is a pattern of behavior. So, Kelsey, what specific bills is the conversation centering around in the House? We don't entirely know right now. So the Congressional Black Caucus has been meeting. Steny Hoyer, who's the majority leader in the House, told reporters this week that he has been in consultation with them for several days.

But we are waiting now to see what what their actual final decision is. There are more than 50 bills out there that could be considered. A few things that we do know, though, is that Pelosi specifically called out wanting to address things like police brutality and racial profiling. And there is a bill from Hakeem Jeffries, who is the chairman of the Democratic caucus, that would outlaw chokeholds. That is something that was embraced by Vice President Joe Biden, obviously the presumptive nominee for president for the Democrats. And it's something that a lot of Democrats are getting behind.

But we don't know exactly if this is going to be some big comprehensive legislative look at policing or if it'll be some discrete bills that they feel like they can pass. You know, it kind of comes down to the politics of how you can cobble together enough votes to get things passed. And speaking of the politics, that's the House controlled by Democrats. Republicans control the Senate. What is the conversation like over there? I know yesterday was the weekly meeting of Senate Republicans. Was there a clear message coming out of that meeting about what they want to do? Senate Republicans primarily want to have a conversation, not really about the underlying issues here, but about protesters. They talk about how to make sure the protests are peaceful. That said, there will be a hearing on June 16th in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

It was announced this week by Chairman Lindsey Graham that they will be looking into policing. That's interesting that they don't want to address the underlying issues because we have now reached that point that comes with so many social protest movements where corporations across the country suddenly embrace their language and talk about that, which is something that's often viewed with very mixed views from the people at the heart of the protest, but is always a sign that at least the general idea to do something about it has gone mainstream. Yeah, I mean, it's like it's sinking in, right? Like you have all these corporations talking about Black Lives Matter. And just a few years ago, just saying Black Lives Matter was controversial in and of itself. I'm not saying it's not still that some people still don't take issue with it. But the movement itself, people are, you're seeing a much

more wider mainstream, you know, white corporations saying Black Lives Matter. And you see like how the narrative has shifted. So Aisha, to that end, what are we hearing from the White House? I mean, we have been focused so much on how President Trump really has centered his response around using military force to try to quell protests. What, if anything, has he and have top advisors been saying about the root of this, about police brutality and racial disparities? It is not clear. President Trump was on Fox News radio this morning, and he was pressed on this a bit like, you know, what are you going to do about black people, you know, not being able to trust the police and things of that nature. And he didn't really give a direct answer about that.

He did just kind of say police departments need to do better. But how do you handle the law enforcement part of this? Well, I think you have to get better than what they've been doing. I mean, obviously, that was a terrible thing. And I've spoken about it numerous times in various speeches. And, you know, it's interesting. I spoke about it when we launched a very successful... But he didn't give any specifics. I will say that Senator Tim Scott, who is, has, you know, has a close, pretty close relationship

with President Trump and has been influential on other policies. He has been pushing and a former aide of his has been pushing the idea of setting up some type of commission on civil rights and also passing a bill that Tim Scott already had about making police departments report when there are shootings or police-involved shootings if they get federal funding. So he is someone who has the ear of the president, and this is what he's pushing. So maybe the White House might be open to that. And Senators Grassley, Ernst, and Lankford, all Republicans also signed on to that bill. And one thing we talked about in a podcast last week that you were both on was the fact that there are a lot of powers and laws already on the books for the executive branch to use. The Obama administration tried to be pretty aggressive about it.

Of course, it didn't solve the underlying problem, but they were really active. And the Trump administration has decided to walk back a good chunk of those, you know, federal consent orders and other tools the Department of Justice has to deal with local police forces. And it was very intentional. Like, they came in and they said that the Obama administration had been at war with law enforcement. They wanted to say in the Trump administration, we're for law enforcement, we're for the police, and that they should not be curtailed in the way that the Obama administration was kind of pulling them back. Yeah. And Kelsey, Congress has this on its plate.

It still has a massive pandemic with a virus that is still highly contagious and will not stop being so anytime soon. We have record unemployment. I know that the best tool you have for reporting Congress of walking the halls is severely limited right now. But like in your sense, at this point in time, how much attention is the issue of police violence and racism that has flared up, you know, fit in the mix of all the things Congress is trying to deal with right now. Democrats in the House say that it is a huge priority and something that they want to get done immediately. The Senate is currently working on approving judges and holding hearings. We did, as I mentioned, there will be this hearing

in the Senate Judiciary Committee later this month. Senator Graham talked about their wanting to shine a light on a wide range of issues related to policing, and Democrats say that they need to be focused on solutions, not just looking at the problem. You know, one of the problems that they run into, though, as I've talked to people who are looking at this, is that they feel like they have a limited set of options. They can put conditions on federal funding and basically asking state and local governments to have standards for training and use of force investigations and make their funding contingent on adhering to those standards. They could require the Department of Justice to develop some sort of model policies and best practices. You know, these are all things where they can kind of ask people to do other things is what

people are saying to me is that the Congress has a lot of tools for asking the Justice Department to do something or asking state and local governments to do something. But by and large, federal government isn't set up to have Congress really have any real clear oversight over policing. But in the past, even though that there are limits because policing is more at a local level, I mean, has Congress really, you know, put their thinking caps on and focused on getting something done? You know, I mean, it seems like Congress can do a lot when they want to, right? Right. Like that is the thing, is that this is one of those issues that has traditionally been really difficult

for Congress to have the political will to face. And the question now is whether or not that changes. Is this a moment when Congress will suddenly find a power and a sense of political will to do something like this when they know that the president of the United States is probably not going to sign a bill? I will leave that up to the listeners. Yes. All right. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, the results from last night's primary. DuckDuckGo can help. They help millions of people like you take control of their personal information online.

With one download, you can search and browse privately, avoiding trackers. DuckDuckGo. Privacy simplified. It feels like nothing in the news these days makes any sense. So Hassan Minhaj turned to his father and his faith for answers. He said, don't worry about the number of questions. Just worry about which questions become more clear and solidified. Comedian Hassan Minhaj on how his spirituality is getting him through. Listen and subscribe to It's Been a Minute from NPR.

And we're back. Last night, eight states and the District of Columbia held their primaries. A lot of these states had delayed their primaries to June because of the coronavirus, which is, of course, still a factor. And some had problems dealing with the huge upsurge of mail-in ballots. Here in D.C., there were really long lines that lasted well past the curfew that had been put in place by the city's mayor. We will talk about all of that and what it means for November in an upcoming podcast. We're going to walk through some of the results here. Kelsey, I think the biggest result is that in Iowa, Republican Congressman Steve King lost his primary.

Yes, he did. Steve King has long been a controversial member of Congress, particularly for racist statements he has made over the course of his career. He lost in a five-way primary. And this is a really big boon for national Republicans who saw him as a threat to that seat. They thought that if he was the nominee, there was a chance that Democrats could flip it. But part of the reason that he lost was because they were able to make, other Republicans were able to make an argument that King was ineffective in his job because he was stripped of his committee assignments after he made comments to the New York Times, where he said, quote, white nationalist, white supremacist,

Western civilization, how did that language become offensive? Yes. And that was the straw that I guess just basically flat out saying like, what's wrong with white supremacy was like a step too far for people in Congress. Yeah. Any other clear trends or races worth talking about from last night? I do think what you mentioned about those long lines is really, really important because this is a preview, right, of what voting looks like in the world of coronavirus. The polling place by my house had a line when I checked it in the evening of about a quarter of a mile or longer just to get into the polling place. We were hearing reports

of people taking up to five hours waiting to vote. And that seemed to be alleviated in states where there was more mail-in voting, where they took steps to prevent that. But if that is the case on election day in November, that could cause very, very, very serious systemic problems. Right. And it's a huge issue when, you know, thinking about, you know, people having the right to vote, having being able to exercise their right to vote, and the lawsuits and things that may come up because of this, with people saying their rights are being infringed upon. Of course, the White House has been adamantly against mail-in voting,

widespread mail-in voting. They support some absentee voting, including by the president. One thing advocates have pointed out in press releases throughout the day today is it's not even just whether or not people can get to the polls, but if they believe that the lines are going to be five hours long, some people are just not going to show up and that they're casting that as its own form of voter suppression. And they may not be able to show up, right, if they have a job or kids or whatever.

You may not be able to show up and spend five, six hours in line. It's a huge challenge on a whole bunch of fronts. Miles Parks has been covering for this. We'll have him back on the podcast soon to talk about it. All right, that's a wrap for today. We'll be back tomorrow. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover the campaign.

I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Kelsey Snell. I cover Congress. And, well, it's nap time here in the Detrow household. Ayesha, you had some production assistance on your end too today. It's never nap time at my household and the party keeps going. We keep the party going. You know, glad the energy's up.

Thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.