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U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black
Republican in Congress, declared that “America is not a racist country,”
although he added that it still has work to do on improving race relations and
curbing police profiling and brutality.
The backlash from many corners of the black community against Scott, who made
the statement in a televised rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s address to a
joint session of Congress, was fierce. The term “Uncle Tim” went viral on
Twitter for nearly 12 hours before the social media platform stopped allowing it
to appear in its trending section. The Rev. Al Sharpton countered that the
“practice of America was built on racism.”
Before that firestorm, Scott was reporting new progress on a reform bill after
more than 10 months of stalemate. And the two-term senator praised the work of
his Democratic partners, Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 presidential primary candidate
and former mayor of Newark, N.J., credited for decreasing crime and turning the
city around, along with Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat and a prominent
member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Could the cross-party partnership survive the new wave of vitriol directed at
Scott after his remarks countering the liberal argument of systemic racism?
Apparently so, because the same trio of lawmakers on Monday issued a joint
statement citing renewed momentum in forging a compromise police-reform bill.
Scott, Booker and Bass timed the statement to mark Tuesday’s one-year
anniversary of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by former Minneapolis
police officer Derek Chauvin, sparking months of protests, many of which became
violent, in cities across the country.
“One year ago, George Floyd’s murder awakened millions of people around the
world who had never before witnessed the deadly consequences of the failures in
our policing system,” the lawmakers said. “…While we are still working through
our differences on key issues, we continue to make progress toward a compromise
and remain optimistic about the prospects of achieving that goal.”
If a bipartisan bill is truly within reach, its passage would take pressure off
President Biden, who in his joint address promised to help push a measure over
the finish line before the Floyd anniversary, only to back off that goal once it
became clear Congress wouldn’t make the deadline.
The White House has since kept a lighter touch, arguing that it is allowing
lawmakers the space to work through the issues, a position White House press
secretary Jen Psaki repeated Monday.
“[Biden] is encouraged that there is ongoing progress and that there is a sense
from negotiators that there’s a path forward, and he believes he can continue to
press on that,” Psaki told reporters during her daily briefing.
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Instead of a Rose Garden signing ceremony on a reform bill, Biden will host the
Floyd family at the White House Tuesday for a private meeting.
Meanwhile, Bass, Booker and Scott are working through their differences. Chief
among them is crafting a compromise on the issue that became the main roadblock
to progress last year: whether to lift qualified immunity protection for police
officers in civil lawsuits. Scott in early April told RealClearPolitics that he
is willing to forge some middle ground, but more recently signaled he will not
agree to total elimination of the legal protection.
The bipartisan trio reportedly has met in person three times over the last week
in sessions that included the chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus – Reps. Josh
Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, and Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania
Republican.
Last summer, Scott spearheaded a reform measure after an emotional speech on the
Senate floor in which he talked about his own unsettling encounters with law
enforcement, including one year in which police stopped him seven times. That
effort broke down when Senate Democrats led a legislative filibuster to block
the bill, with many of them stating that their top problem was that it didn’t
include an overhaul of qualified immunity protections.
The bipartisan measure lawmakers are hashing out right now would overhaul
several policing practices and modify qualified immunity, although they have yet
to say exactly how. It would bar racial profiling at every level of law
enforcement while trying to stop no-knock warrants and choke-holds by preventing
police departments that don’t adhere to the standards from receiving federal
aid.
The bill would also create a national police misconduct registry so that
officers who are fired for such violations could not easily move on to another
police department.
But the negotiations aren’t taking place in a vacuum. It could be difficult to
win over the 10 Senate Republicans necessary for the bill’s passage, especially
with new reports of skyrocketing crime in some big cities amid continued high
levels of pandemic-produced unemployment. After seeing a 36% increase in
murders, Los Angeles, for instance, is set to reverse its $150 million cuts to
the department’s budget made last year amid calls from the left to “defund the
police.” The infusion of cash will allow the police department to hire 250 more
officers.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' White House/national
political correspondent.
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