RINGSIDE POLITICS – MARCH 15, 2021

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Welcome to another edition of Ringside Politics with Jeff Crouere

Today’s Hot Topics:

1) Congress is once again bracing for knock-down political combat over a burgeoning crisis at the southern border.

As a wave of unaccompanied migrant children arrives at the U.S.-Mexico border — a potentially perilous scenario for those trying to enter the country — Republicans are using the moment to rally their base around the same anti-immigration message trumpeted by former President Donald Trump. And Democrats are racing to help President Joe Biden control the influx of migrants without breaking their promise to make the U.S. immigration system more humane.

2) Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday joined the call for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to step down in light of the most recent allegations against the embattled governor.

A sixth woman emerged this week accusing Cuomo of sexual misconduct. According to a report in the Times Union, the woman, a staffer whose identity has not been made public, said Cuomo last year called her to the Executive Mansion, and once she was there he reached under her blouse and fondled her.

“The specific allegation that the governor called an employee of his, someone who he had power over, called her to a private place and then sexually assaulted her is absolutely unacceptable. It is disgusting to me,” de Blasio told reporters Thursday during a press conference at City Hall. “He can no longer serve as governor. It’s as simple as that.”

It marks the first time that de Blasio has called for Cuomo to resign over the multiple scandals that have emerged in recent weeks. The governor is also facing accusations of covering up the amount of nursing home deaths in New York.

Cuomo has denied the latest allegations.

3) An MSNBC host said the FBI headquarters should scrub its name honoring a “racist tyrant” and instead call it the “Stacey Abrams Building.”

“Changing the name of our premier law enforcement agency so that it doesn’t honor a racist tyrant who trampled civil liberties, I don’t know, seems like a pretty logical step to me,” Tiffany Cross said on The Cross Connection Saturday, speaking of the nation’s first FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover.

“How about: the Stacey Abrams Building. If one woman could square off against a whole system that tried to suppress, oppress, and depress the descendants of the people who built this country, for free, and who again managed to save the country from itself, then surely, we can dedicate the building representing equal protection under law after a real political warrior.”

4) A clearly exasperated Jen Psaki on Friday refused to give the Trump administration credit for its work on the COVID vaccine and also admitted Joe Biden wasn’t the best person to convince ‘hardcore’ supporters of Donald Trump to get a shot in the arm.

The White House press secretary was asked repeatedly about the work of Trump and Operation Warp Speed on the pandemic and she was pressed on why there wasn’t more outreach to skeptics of the vaccine, many of whom are also supporters of the former president.

‘Let me try this again,’ she said at one point during Friday’s briefing when she was pushed again and again on the matter.

Today’s Guests:

1) Baron Christopher Hanson, Owner of Redbaron Consulting – joins the show to talk about the semi-annual inconvenience of Daylight Savings Time.

2) Greg Lirette, Candidate for Congress, 2nd Congressional District, LA – joins the show to discuss his platform and discuss his campaign.