RINGSIDE POLITICS – MAY 19, 2021

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Welcome to another edition of Ringside Politics with Jeff Crouere

Today’s Hot Topics:

1) President Biden and Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib engaged in a tense, roughly eight-minute conversation on the airport tarmac in Detroit after Biden’s arrival there Tuesday.

Tlaib refused to say what she and the president discussed. At one point, Biden patted the congresswoman’s shoulder. Later, during a speech in Dearborn, he lavishly complimented her.

“I want to say to you that I admire your intellect, I admire your passion, and I admire your concern for so many other people. And it’s from my heart,” Biden said later of Tlaib during his speech at the Dearborn Ford factory. “I pray that your Grandma and family are well, I promise to do everything you see that they are in the West Bank.”

“You’re a fighter,” he added, though he mistakenly referred to her as Rasheed. “And God, thank you for being a fighter.”

Tlaib has been fiercely critical of Biden and the State Department’s handling of the recent conflict between Hamas and Israel.

2) President Joe Biden, while touting his $174 billion electric vehicle (EV) plan, ignored his record of allowing Chinese investors with ties to the Chinese Communist Party to buy up key parts of the American EV industry.

During a speech at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, Biden touted his record as vice president to former President Barack Obama in relation to the nation’s battery-powered EVs.

“Our own Department of Energy pioneered and transformed the battery industry when Barack and I were in office. And through the Recovery Act’s grants and loans, battery prices dropped 80 percent because we were looking forward,” Biden said.

Biden also said he would not allow “a single contract go to a single company that does not hire Americans, have all American parts, and has an American supply chain that is an American product supply chain.”

3) Black Lives Matter protesters threatened with an “economic boycott” in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on Wednesday, after a local prosecutor announced that the deputies who shot and killed Andrew Brown Jr. last month while serving drug-related search and arrest warrants will not be charged.

Protesters reacted to Tuesday’s announcement by Andrew Womble, elected district attorney for Judicial District 1, with a march from the Pasquotank Public Safety Building, where the anticipated news conference took place. Womble, whose district covers seven counties of the northeastern part of the state, said the April 21 shooting that killed Brown “while tragic, was justified.”

For the economic boycott scheduled for Wednesday, protesters aim to not spend money in Pasquotank County in order to put pressure on Womble to call on a special prosecutor to take a second look at the investigation into Brown’s death, WAVY reported.

4) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday brushed off President Biden’s call for a “significant de-escalation” of the conflict in Gaza, saying he is “determined to continue” the operation against the terrorist organization Hamas – just as Biden is facing pressure from the progressive arm of his own party on the issue.

Biden spoke to Netanyahu early Wednesday, and the White House said the two “had a detailed discussion of the state of events in Gaza, Israel’s progress in degrading the capabilities of Hamas and other terrorist elements, and ongoing diplomatic efforts by regional governments and the United States.”

Today’s Guests:

1) Josh Bernstein, Ringside All-Star

2) Don Redmann, Public Affairs Specialist, AAA

3) Jim Brown, Former LA Insurance Commissioner

4) Mimi Crouere, Ringside All-Star – rendezvous with Jeff to opine and take callers.