RINGSIDE POLITICS – APRIL 22, 2021

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Welcome to another edition of Ringside Politics with Jeff Crouere

Today’s Hot Topics:

1) Gov. Doug Ducey will dispatch National Guard troops to the southern border in response to a recent increase in migrants being apprehended by the Border Patrol, his office announced Tuesday.

The Republican leader also declared a state of emergency in four border counties — Cochise, Pima, Santa Cruz and Yuma — as well as in Maricopa and Pinal.

“The U.S. Border Patrol is overwhelmed. Local law enforcement and mayors are calling out for help,” Ducey said in a video outlining his rationale.

2) White House press secretary Jen Psaki had an uncomfortable exchange with a reporter Wednesday after he asked whether President Biden “acknowledges his own role” in what the president described as “systemic racism” in America.

During his address to the nation Tuesday evening following the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Biden said George Floyd’s death, which he called “murder in full light of day,” had “ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism in the United States.”

At Wednesday’s briefing, New York Post reporter Steve Nelson confronted Psaki about whether the president contributed to “systemic racism” during his decades-long tenure in the Senate.

3) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) shared a stern message on Twitter on Tuesday after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd.

“This verdict is not a substitute for policy change,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote shortly after Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

“That a family had to lose a son, brother and father; that a teenage girl had to film and post a murder, that millions across the country had to organize and march just for George Floyd to be seen and valued is not justice,” she wrote.

Today’s Guests:

1) Col. Allen West, Chairman of the Texas Republican Party – calls in the state of affairs in the Republican Party and the nation as a whole.

2) Steve Konos, Ringside Politics Creative Director; Ringside Politics Parody of the Week – joins the show to share and discuss his weekly political parody.

3) Josh Bernstein, Ringside All-Star – joins the show to opine with callers and discuss the events of the week.

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