As Cheddar celebrates Black History Month, House Majority Whip, Jim Clyburn (D-S.C. 6th District) shared his expectations of President Joe Biden while his new administration gets settled in.
With Black Americans and other minority groups disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic both economically and physically, Clyburn noted that the president has to get a grasp on the virus with testing, tracing, and vaccinations before focusing on rebuilding the economy.
"When things get stabilized, then it's time for us to look at how we go out and generate a new economy," he said. "That's why I'm so proud of the fact that in [Biden's] very first move, he made it very clear: this is a rescue."
The South Carolina Democrat, however, mentioned that closing existing gaps across a range of areas, including wealth and education, has to be a priority for the Biden administration. He also said the country will not be able to make progress without facing the stark racial divisions that have left the country so flawed.
It was a similar sentiment for Clyburn when it came to addressing the extremism on display in the U.S. such as that of the Capitol Hill riots. While he said he believes it is possible to put an end to hate groups and domestic terrorism, he said the country has to do more self-reflection and hold itself accountable.
"We've never done enough and simply because we've never admitted [domestic terrorism] existed. That's a big problem. You cannot solve a problem until you admit that there is a problem, otherwise, you're simply ignoring and hoping it will go away," Clyburn noted, linking modern extremist groups such as the Proud Boys to the likes of the older Ku Klux Klan.
The South Carolina representative also said that he's confident that President Biden will work towards addressing the growing issue of domestic terror.
Clyburn added that he wants the president to honor the late John Lewis and focus on securing future U.S. elections. Following the volatile November elections that seated Biden and the January Senate races in Georgia that saw two Democrats unseat their GOP counterparts, Republican officials in the state have been looking to clamp down further on voter ID laws.
"That, to me, if we were able to move [the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act] rather quickly and put that in law, we will have a lasting impact for John Lewis because it's in that law that we will stop some of the voter suppression that is taking place, that was doubled down upon after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965," he said.
Award-winning journalist, entrepreneur, and host Soledad O'Brien spoke to Cheddar about empowering women through her own podcast on financial literacy this Women's History Month.
Six House lawmakers are calling on Meta to stop paid ads from Chinese news companies that push Russian misinformation regarding the war in Ukraine. Matt Skibinski, General Manager, NewsGuard Technologies joins Cheddar to discuss the role of social media in this war.
Reva Shakkottai, Senior Vice President and financial advisor at RBC Wealth Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she elaborates on factors besides Wednesday's Fed decision that led to gains across the major indexes on Thursday, including new home construction and jobless claims data.
Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at National Securities, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech following the U.S. central bank's decision to raise rates and explains why Powell's comments move the markets more than the Fed decision itself.
Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif. 29th District) joined Cheddar News at South By Southwest to discuss the variety of sanctions that the United States has placed on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began last month and the impacts they are having both domestically and abroad. With rising gas prices, especially in states like California, Schiff noted that the American people are willing to make sacrifices in order to uphold their values and suggested that crisis may be a warning to shift away from fossil fuels. "At the end of the day though, this ought to be a wake up call that we need to stop our reliance on this oil economy and move to renewable sources of energy," he said. Schiff also explained his remarks about the January 6 commission investigating those closest to former President Trump and touched on a disturbing case in San Francisco where the police department used rape kit samples to ID a murder suspect.
Markets opened lower as the Federal Reserve announces plans to hike interest rates by a quarter point, while signaling six additional rate hikes later this year. Gary Schlossberg, Global Strategist, Wells Fargo Investment Institute, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
Apple's Racial Equity and Justice Initiative is a $100 million program aimed at combating systemic racism while working to advance racial equity across the country. Alisha Johnson, director of the initiative, joined Cheddar at SXSW to discuss the work being done. "We focused on three critical areas. The first is education. The second is criminal justice reform, and the third is economic empowerment, really looking first in our own supply chain, how can we really increase our spend with Latinx, Hispanic, and indigenous-owned businesses," she said. "And then how can we go further to empower entrepreneurs who have been cut out of access to funding and capital and really help them to get the funding."
What you Need to Know on Thursday, March 17. Updates from Ukraine, President Biden refers to Putin as a ‘war criminal’ for the first time, Walmart has ambitious hiring targets for Q1, and Netflix takes steps to crack down on password sharing.
