February, 05 2019, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Derrick Robinson, Director of Communications, Drobinson@lawyerscommittee.org, (202) 662-8317
Trump Fails to Deliver a Message of National Unity in Second State of The Union Address & Ignores Civil Rights
Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued the following statement Tuesday responding to President Trump's second State of the Union address:
"President Trump has spent the past two years unleashing policies that harm our nation's vulnerable communities, including African Americans, Latinos, immigrants, and people of color. Under his tenure, the Justice Department has abandoned enforcement of many our federal civil rights laws and reversed course on voting rights, policing reform, fair lending, and more.
WASHINGTON
Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued the following statement Tuesday responding to President Trump's second State of the Union address:
"President Trump has spent the past two years unleashing policies that harm our nation's vulnerable communities, including African Americans, Latinos, immigrants, and people of color. Under his tenure, the Justice Department has abandoned enforcement of many our federal civil rights laws and reversed course on voting rights, policing reform, fair lending, and more.
"President Trump continues to tout the need for a wall, his most prominent and ostentatious display of power, while promoting dangerous stereotypes about immigrants seeking refuge and a safe haven in the United States.
"His silence regarding white supremacy, racial violence, bigotry and the spike in hate crimes faced by communities of color was truly deafening.
"Trump claims the union is strong but his actions, at every turn, have only divided the country, demonized communities of color, and promoted racial hostility."
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
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President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers are reportedly considering plans to weaken—or abolish altogether—top bank regulators, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Wall Street Journalreported Thursday that members of Trump's transition team and the new Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have asked nominees under consideration to head the FDIC and OCC if the bank watchdogs could be eliminated and have their functions absorbed by the Treasury Department, which is set to be run by a billionaire hedge fund manager and crypto enthusiast.
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The Trump team's internal and fluid discussions about the fate of the key bank regulators broadly aligns with Project 2025's proposal to "merge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Federal Reserve's non-monetary supervisory and regulatory functions."
The FDIC, which is primarily funded by bank insurance premiums, was established during the Great Depression to restore public trust in the nation's banking system, and the agency played a central role in navigating the 2023 bank failures that threatened a systemic crisis.
Observers warned that gutting the FDIC and OCC could catalyze another economic meltdown.
"The next recession starts here," tech journalist Jacob Silverman warned in response to the Journal's reporting.
Eric Rauchway, a historian of the New Deal, wrote that "even Milton Friedman appreciated the FDIC," underscoring the extreme nature of the incoming Trump administration's deregulatory ambitions.
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Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
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"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
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