National Public Radio: on Civil Rights
Bernie Sanders:
Supports reparations, but targeted to distressed communities
Q: Would you support a reparations plan?Sanders: "Yeah--but not if it means just a cash payment or a check to families. I would not support that. I am sympathetic to an idea brought forth by Congressman Jim Clyburn. And he has what he calls a
10-20-30 plan, which says that 10 percent of federal resources should go to communities that have had 20 percent levels of poverty for 30 years. In other words, the most distressed communities in America."
Source: NPR Morning Edition, "Election 2020: Opening Arguments"
Mar 18, 2019
Chris Pappas:
State of the Union: protest transgender military service ban
The most important political issues of the past year will be on display, not only in what President Trump says in his State of the Union address, but in who will be in the audience.
Lawmakers, along with the president and first lady, pick guests every year to highlight or protest the policies of an administration.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Chris Pappas are bringing guests to protest the transgender military service ban. Gillibrand is bringing Lt. Commander Blake Dremann, the first openly transgender service member to be promoted, and Pappas is bringing
Tavion Dignard, a transgender man and retired Navy veteran. "Denying transgender Americans their right to serve this country is a disgrace," Pappas said, "They deserve equal treatment by their government and the law."
Source: KUOW 94.9 FM (NPR) on 2019 State of the Union
Feb 5, 2019
Curt Clawson:
Promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes
Clawson emphasized a belief on his part and on the part of other likeminded, new congressmen, that American needed to promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.
And he used his experience as a basketball player at Purdue to encourage cooperation in Washington.
Source: NPR.org on Tea Party 2015 State of the Union response
Jan 20, 2015
Donald Trump:
FactCheck: Yes, record number of women in Congress
NPR touted a fact check that critiqued Trump for praising the record number of women in Congress simply because he didn't mention that most of them are Democrats.NPR: Trump praised the record number of women in Congress, but that's almost
entirely because of Democrats, not Trump's party."
Social media strategist Caleb Hull pointed out that Trump "never claimed his party was responsible" for the increase in women in Congress.
OnTheIssues FactCheck: So who's right? Here's what
Trump actually said: "We have more women in the workforce than ever before--and exactly one century after the Congress passed the Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in the Congress than ever before."
Trump never claimed credit for himself nor for the Republican Party for the record number of women in Congress. Fox News is correct; NPR is incorrect. Trustworthy fact-check sources, such as OnTheIssues, always refer back to the original speech!
Source: Fox News vs. NPR Fact-Check on 2019 State of the Union
Feb 6, 2019
Geoff Diehl:
Supports gay GOP candidate criticized by committee member
Massachusetts Republican State Committee member Deborah Martell wrote in an email that she was "sickened" that a Republican Congressional candidate who is married to a man had adopted kids. Gov. Baker and others called for her to resign from the
panel. "First of all, I totally side with the candidate, very nice guy, lovely family, absolutely support his run for Congress," Diehl said. "Secondly, I think the state committeewoman who made the comments was wrong in what she said."
Source: WGBH NPR-Boston on 2022 Massachusetts Gubernatorial race
Jul 7, 2021
Howard Dean:
The Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional
DEAN: The Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. States ought to be able to decide for themselves. We decided. Massachusetts has now decided. Let the states do this. The only role of the federal government should be this: One, they ought to make
clear that every state has a responsibility in the way that they choose to make sure that every gay and lesbian American has the same rights as everybody else. And two, the President should make available every single immigration right, taxation right,
inheritance right, and all the other 1,600 rights that are not available now to gay and lesbian Americans because they're not allowed to get married, those rights should be available to every American, every single American without an adjective about
what category that American might belong to.NADER: The gay and lesbian community would prefer our position to the position of John Kerry to what's going on in Massachusetts. Certainly his position is better than Bush, but our position is the best.
Source: NPR, "Justice Talking" Dean-Nader Debate
Jul 9, 2004
Howard Dean:
Referendum votes should not apply to civil rights
Most people in America believe in referendum government. I don't. We gave civil rights to a despised minority in 2000. The gay and lesbian community got the same rights as everybody else did. If that had ever been put to a referendum,
it would have gone down. Can you imagine what would have happened in Arkansas if you tried to do a civil rights amendment through a ballot referendum? Referendum is not always the best form of government. It is the tyranny of the majority.
Source: NPR, "Justice Talking" Dean-Nader Debate
Jul 9, 2004
Kirsten Gillibrand:
State of the Union: protest transgender military service ban
The most important political issues of the past year will be on display, not only in what President Trump says in his State of the Union address, but in who will be in the audience.
Lawmakers, along with the president and first lady, pick guests every year to highlight or protest the policies of an administration.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Chris Pappas are bringing guests to protest the transgender military service ban. Gillibrand is bringing Lt. Commander Blake Dremann, the first openly transgender service member to be promoted, and Pappas is bringing
Tavion Dignard, a transgender man and retired Navy veteran. "Denying transgender Americans their right to serve this country is a disgrace," Pappas said, "They deserve equal treatment by their government and the law."
Source: KUOW 94.9 FM (NPR) on 2019 State of the Union
Feb 5, 2019
Maura Healey:
We put an equity lens on everything that we do
One thing I'm most proud of as attorney general is we put an equity lens on everything that we do.
Everything that runs through the office--whether it's consumer work, financial services or the environment, health care--everything is looked at through an equity lens.
Source: WBUR (NPR Radio) on 2022 Massachusetts Gubernatorial race
Feb 3, 2022
Maura Healey:
Was lead counsel challenging Defense of Marriage Act
Healey served as the lead counsel in Massachusetts v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. In that case, the commonwealth challenged the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which limited marriage to one man and one woman and
was signed into law in 1996. Healey argued that by denying benefits like Social Security to same-sex couples who'd been legally marrying in Massachusetts since 2004, the federal government was encroaching on state authority.
Source: WGBH (NPR Radio) on 2022 Massachusetts Gubernatorial race
Feb 3, 2022
Maura Healey:
The first openly gay state attorney general in U.S. history
Back in 2014, when she first ran, her primary opponent, Warren Tolman, was a former state legislator and one-time gubernatorial candidate who enjoyed strong support from the Democratic establishment. Healey crushed Tolman, 62% to
38%, buoyed by aggressive retail campaigning [and] enthusiastic support from LGBTQ voters. In the general election, Healey routed Republican John Miller by the exact same margin, becoming the first openly gay state attorney general in U.S. history.
Source: WGBH (NPR Radio) on 2022 Massachusetts Gubernatorial race
Feb 3, 2022
Pete Buttigieg:
Douglass Plan: tackle racial inequality with funding & laws
[Responding to a police shooting in Buttigieg's hometown of South Bend Indiana, where a white police officer shot a black man, Mayor Buttigieg said], "If you're a white candidate, it is twice as important for you to be talking about racial inequity
and not just describing the problem but actually talking about what we're going to do about it." Buttigieg told NPR his "Douglass Plan" aims to establish a $10 billion fund for black entrepreneurs over five years, invest $25 billion in historically
black colleges, legalize marijuana, expunge past drug convictions, reduce the prison population by half and pass a new Voting Rights Act to further empower the federal government to ensure voting access. His campaign says it is equal in scale to the
Marshall Plan, which used the equivalent of approximately $100 billion at current value to rebuild Europe after World War II. Buttigieg says the program would be enacted alongside potential direct reparations for slavery, not in place of it.
Source: NPR Morning Edition, "Election 2020: Opening Arguments"
Jul 11, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Racial inequality compounds, which is why it is persistent
We need to intentionally invest in health, in home ownership, in entrepreneurship, in access to democracy, in economic empowerment. If we don't do these things, we shouldn't be surprised that racial inequality persists because inequalities compound.
Just like a dollar saved, a dollar stolen also compounds. And I think that helps to explain the persistent racial inequality that we have in our national life today.
Source: NPR Morning Edition, "Election 2020: Opening Arguments"
Jul 11, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
White America needs to face roots of systemic racism
I think we'll know we're getting somewhere when this is not regarded as some specialty issue that candidates of color talk about or that we only talk about when addressing voters of color.
This is a conversation that, frankly, white America needs to have too, because white America needs to face the roots of these inequities and the fact of systemic racism all around us. It's the air we breathe.
Source: NPR Morning Edition: Election 2020 Special Series
Jul 11, 2019
Ralph Nader:
Get rid of gay discrimination fully, not halfway
DEAN: The Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. States ought to be able to decide for themselves. We decided. Massachusetts has now decided. Let the states do this.. The President should make available every single immigration right,
taxation right, inheritance right, and all the other 1,600 rights that are not available now to gay and lesbian Americans because they're not allowed to get married, those rights should be available to every American, every single American without an
adjective about what category that American might belong to. NADER: The gay and lesbian community would prefer our position to the position of John Kerry to what's going on in Massachusetts. Certainly his position is better than Bush,
but our position is the best. We've got to get rid of this discrimination, this chilling, this bigotry toward gays and lesbians that are reflected in literally hundreds and hundreds of statutes and regulations in this country.
Source: NPR, "Justice Talking" Dean-Nader Debate
Jul 9, 2004
Kamala Harris:
Reparations raise a public health issue
If we start to examine what have been the outcomes of the history of slavery and legal segregation and discrimination, when people have experienced trauma, and it has been undiagnosed and untreated, you will see certain public health outcomes.
And so if you recognize the trauma that existed, and we want to end what are avoidable health outcomes, you need to put resources--and direct resources, extra resources--into those communities that have experienced that trauma."
Source: NPR Morning Edition, "Election 2020: Opening Arguments"
Mar 14, 2019
Page last updated: Oct 26, 2024