Biden Aide feels warmth from all sides on the White House vow of equality

Photographer: Erin Scott / Bloomberg

As President Joe Biden tries to address racial inequalities in the US, he turned to former Congressman Cedric Richmond to help deliver on a pledge to end discriminatory practices ranging from housing to the right to vote – a task that complicated by the risk of alienating Republicans whose support is needed on key legislative priorities.

Richmond, a Louisiana lawmaker who led the Congressional Black Caucus during the Trump administration, heads Biden’s Office of Public Engagement. There, he is the counterpart of outside groups and activists ready to hold the president accountable for his pledge to address the nation’s deep-seated racial divisions.

Along with his pledge to fight inequality in all policies, Biden campaigned to heal the country’s political rifts and work down the aisle to restore politeness in Washington. But many Republicans have rejected the president’s call to address racial inequalities – and even the idea that institutionalized racism exists – creating a potentially intractable conflict for Richmond to negotiate.

“We are listening to everyone and we will receive input, but that does not mean we are jeopardizing our values,” Richmond said in an interview. I’ll give you an old African saying as a way to think about it: When two elephants fight, only the grass suffers. And so we want to make sure that the people are not the grass – that you have to fight endlessly and that they never get help. “

Biden has used his presidency to stop the coronavirus pandemic and revive the U.S. economy after the crisis dealt a disproportionate blow to minorities.

But beyond immediate aid, civil rights groups are demanding structural changes that can help address racial economic inequalities and rights in the future. That includes passing a new voting rights law to expand access to ballots even as Republican lawmakers try to enact measures that would tighten voting rules – moves that would disproportionately affect minority groups, their proponents say.

“It is important that President Biden has cited racism as one of the crises he must attack, along with Covid, along with the climate crisis and the economy,” said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project National Office, a civil rights organization. group. “And so our job, as outside groups, is to make sure they are genuine about their commitment.”

As the main link between Biden and outside liberal groups pushing for the undoing of former President Donald Trump’s policies and promoting a progressive agenda, Richmond will deal with issues ranging from unequal health care to police brutality. Other key government figures on these issues, Dianis said, include Catherine Lhamon, who is in charge of racial justice and equality in the Domestic Policy Council; Kristen Clarke, Biden’s nominee for Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division; and Vanita Gupta, his candidate as Deputy Attorney General.

“I could be what my father used to call a jack of all trades, a master of nothing. In baseball terminology, more of a utility player, ”said Richmond, a former baseball player who helped the Democrats Republicans dominate in their annual charity game.

‘Transformational President’

Biden, Richmond told, “said over and over on the campaign trail that he wants to be a very transformational president, that he wants to strengthen groups that were generally unauthorized. And he wants his legacy to be that of the most powerful president to ever rule. “

Biden made significant strides in his early weeks in office, issuing guidelines to repeal Trump’s ban on diversity training for federal employees, prevent discrimination in housing, and end the use of private prisons. The president has imbued his pandemic response with measures to address the virus’s inordinate toll on black and brown Americans, setting out plans to invest $ 150 billion in minority-owned small businesses and spending on historically black colleges and universities.

Read more: Biden focuses on housing, private jails in first equality moves

Richmond said these early steps are an important signal to the public that Biden’s pledge to work for fairness was serious.

‘That is a big problem. That means we look for, watch over and intentionally deal with equality across government. So that means advertising, purchasing, that means education, ”Richmond said in an interview. “But even within our Covid package and the Covid response, we’ve also done it so far through a lens of racial equality.”

Richmond, 47, graduated from Morehouse College, a historically black college and university in Atlanta, before earning his law degree from Tulane University in New Orleans.

He was first elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives when he was 26 years old, and served 11 years before being elected to the United States House in 2010. He chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 2017 to 2019 – a period marked by deep racial strife as Trump’s divisive rhetoric helped fuel a resurgence of white supremacy.

Under Richmond’s direction, the caucus yielded a 125-page page report to Trump and refute his ‘what have you got to lose?’ pitch for black voters during his 2016 campaign. The report was titled, “We Have a Lot to Lose: Solutions to Advance Black Families in the 21st Century.”

The group favors many of the issues on Biden’s agenda, such as criminal justice reform, closing health inequalities and closing the wealth gap. But Richmond can also help Biden cross the aisle; as a lawmaker, he cultivated relationships with key Republicans, including Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second GOP member in the House, who calls Richmond a “good friend.”

Voting rights struggle

Republicans have already indicated that a tough battle awaits Biden’s racing initiatives.

Senate leader Mitch McConnell declined to allow a ground vote on the voting rights law when his party controlled the room under Trump. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton has objected to Biden’s plan to end systemic housing discrimination and boost home ownership in communities of color.

“Is it ever appropriate for the government to treat people differently based on their race?” Cotton asked during a confirmation hearing for Marcia Fudge, Biden’s nominee for Secretary for Housing and Urban Development.

And Republican Senator Rand Paul said that Biden’s inaugural speech, which focused heavily on inequality, amounted to an allegation that Republicans were racist.

But Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist, said Biden and Richmond might be able to win “surprising” Republican votes for some equality measures. For example, he said that former Alabama Senator Doug Jones, for whom he previously worked, along with Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, had legislated to revive cold cases from the civil rights era.

In Richmond, Biden has “an astute politician” who can take the challenge, said James Clyburn, the third-placed Democrat in the House of Representatives.