BNN - Friday, May 24, 2024 - 05:00 p.m. (ET) - Segment #1

(Upbeat music) announcer: from the world of politics to the world of business, this is "balance of power." announcer: live from washington, D.C. joe: from bloomberg's washington, D.C. studios to our audiences worldwide, welcome to "balance of power." I am joe mathieu. Four years after the death of george floyd, the effort to revive the justice and policing act that failed to clear commerce the first time. We will speak with democratic congress woman jasmine crockett of texas. The united states top court ruling israel must end operations in rafah now. The ceo of the international rescue committee will be here to discuss the urgent humanitarian need in gaza. The white house releasing gasoline reserves ahead of the memorial day weekend. We will look at prices and what they mean for politics at the pump. Thanks for spending part of your friday with us on bloomberg tv and radio. Tomorrow marks four years since the death of george floyd at the hands of a police officer in minneapolis. Sparking protests across the country and prompting legislation in congress to reform police tactics. The george floyd justice in policing act past the house but never went further and is being reintroduced this week. That is where we start our conversation with jasmine crockett, the democrat from texas, the day before we mark the tragic event. I welcome you back to bloomberg. It is good to see you. You have made reference to the murder of george floyd as inspiration for you to run for public office. Now that we have seen four years pass, is this congress able to pass this time around the george floyd justice in policing act or has the opportunity past? >> I do not think the opportunity has passed. But as you know, this had been the most dysfunctional and unproductive congress in the history of modern-day congresses . I think by the time we are done, we will determine to have been the most unproductive ever. I think there's definitely an opportunity specifically right now as we have seen the militarization of law enforcement on campuses. I think this have gone from being just black lives matter to a larger theme more people can get around. One of the things this legislation does is it does minimize the use of weapons of war as it relates to our local law enforcement. Another thing it does, as we have seen images of students on campuses is it requires there be a national registry. If there is any excessive use of force incidents not only would there be a national registry but also there would be a breakdown on the racial makeup of who it was. I think this is an opportune time to do this. I do not have the highest hopes for this house. Joe: it is interesting. I would like to hear more on that. We have seen changes on the state level. We have seen states and municipalities change rules for their police forces. We have seen some ban so-called. Some have banned no-knock warrants. The question comes down to why it has not happen on the federal level. >> I cannot really explain other than we need hakeem jeffries as our speaker and absolutely we can get it out of the house. I do not know what the holdup was in the senate. I have only heard romans. Until I had an opportunity to sit down at the table, my best guess is we were hung up simply because we have to deal with the filibuster. That is my best guess. Because we did not have 60 democrats, we could not get it across the finish line. Joe: so it comes down to procedure. I spoke with jonathan jackson, the congressman from illinois about whether he thinks the new justice in policing act can pass through congress and the changes we have seen since george floyd's murder following a rush to embrace diversity and

inclusion in what some say is a reversion to the past. Here is what he told us. >> It seems like everything has changed. It seems to be a complete reversal, retrenchment on corporate america's commitment to racial, social, and justice equity. We have seen the extension of our annual budget that passed, the dei office on capitol hill was removed from out of the building. Joe: congresswoman, many of the companies that adopt the dei policies since george floyd's death and in wake of that tragic incident have dropped them. Others who have kept them are being very quiet about them now. How come? >> I agree with my colleague, congressman jackson. Unfortunately we have seen a backlash. We have seen people that for whatever reason harbor what I would consider to be hate in their hearts and a lack of understanding of what dei is all about. They have weaponized the government. They have decided they would go after various companies and corporations and now we are seeing it on our campuses as well. We are seeing moves by state governments as well to attack these companies and try to take them under for embracing who we are in this country, which we are a diverse nation. It is actually what makes us the amazing country that we are, is that we are a melting pot and we are a country of immigrants. Some people seem to be threatened by diversity. Instead, they have decided to turn what they have decided as a threat on them and make threats on others. Joe: is it racism? >> I mean, yeah. Point blank. When you look at who is pushing back, it is the republican party. Part of me says the republican party has been co-opted by maga but what we see is this idea that diversity is bad and the problem. These are the same people that had people come on january 6 to the capitol. And we know, we have the headlines were some of the people convicted were neo-nazis. We know they had the proud boys. We know there have been a lack of dissociation with these white supremacy groups. They are becoming synonymous with who mac is. Unfortunately, maga is co-opting the republican party. I would be happy if this country could get back to a place where we had two functioning real parties of government that just disagreed but believed in governance and respect and could meet in the middle and get something done for the american people. Joe: I want to be careful here. There is an element of maga in the house and only oversight committee. Last week, you were involved in a spat with congresswoman marjorie taylor greene. I am not first to play it back for you. This was during a hearing regarding contempt for merrick garland. Let's remind our viewers and listeners with part of the conversation. >> I'm curious, to better understand your ruling, if someone on this committee starts talking about somebody's bleach blonde, bad built body. >> What now? Joe: I don't if you had a chance to tell the chairman what you meant. You have suggested since then that marjorie taylor greene's comments were racist in the words she chose to describe your personal appearance. This has come down to a level that is disrupting the functioning of congress. What needs to happen next? >> Yeah. We just need someone that will actually enforce the rules as they are laid out in the house. It is interesting because I now know that the republicans are very well aware of what it takes to enforce the rules because that happened last week, and this week we saw where ranking member mcgovern who serves on the rules committee, for whatever reason, they shut him down and all he was doing was addressing things actually factual. Things that could be googled. I'm sure bloomberg has covered the fact that the former president is currently in trial in new york. He referenced the reason my hearing was so late at night was because they decided to go up. Nothing he said was not factual. For whatever reason, they said he was engaging in personalities with the former president and he never said anything that was nonfactual, and they shut him down. He was not allowed to speak anymore on the house floor. Joe: his words were stricken from the record. The words you submitted and

those of marjorie taylor greene were allowed to stay on the record. Why the double standard? >> Exactly. To be clear, I asked presbytery procedure specifically because I wanted the chairman to think about the hypocrisy and how bad this could go. What we have seen out of marjorie taylor greene is she is never held accountable. What she does is she continues to act out, whether bringing pornography into the oversight committee in showing those pictures, whether showing up to the state of the union address in a maga hat. You are not allowed to wear hats at all. It defies the rules of decorum. Whether it is yelling at the president, whether it was this particular state of the union or the previous one, or literally cussing out her colleague on the house floor, lauren boebert. She does all of these things and no one ever holds her to account. It is a problem. The only time she was held accountable is when the democrats were in control of the house and she was kicked off of her committees for her behavior. I do not expect anything better out of margery but I expect better out of my chairman. It is my hope and goal that he will do better going forward. We had another hearing on tuesday and she failed to show up and the hearing went a lot smoother. Joe: you have not talked about that with her in person I presume? >> No. We don't talk. We don't talk. Joe: I hope you will come back and talk to me again. There is still a lot to cover. Thank you, congresswoman. >> Had a good went. Joe: thank you. Commence and see me -- come back and see me when you have time to talk about the campaign trail. Thank you for joining us. Senator rick scott throwing his hat in the ring. We will look at his chances and potential impact next on "balance of power" (Funky hip hop music) Discover amur capital. Amur capital's track record of consistent performance has delivered industry leading returns since inception. Why play games with your financial future? Choose amur capital - a Simpler Approach to Investing. This is what your ear looks like filled with wax. Here's a cotton swab. Watch. It just pushes the wax in. Now here's Wush, the new, safe and effective way to clean your ears. Just Wush the wax out. That's insane. The triple stream safely clears dirt and wax buildup. It feels incredible. Get 15% off and free shipping at Wush.ca Looking for a smarter way to mop? Introducing the new Swiffer PowerMop. An all-in-one cleaning tool that gives you a mop and bucket clean in half the time. Our new cleaning pad has hundreds of scrubbing strips that absorb and lock dirt away. And it has a 360° swivel head that goes places a regular mop just can't. So you can clean your home faster and easier. Goodbye Hassle, Hello PowerMop. And with Terracycle, you can recycle your Swiffer Pads. At Pet Valu, we treat your pet like our pet. Well, Georgie, it's time for adult food. And there's a lot of great options to choo... too choose from. They grow up so fast. I know... I do this like ten times a day. ( )( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) joe: this is "balance of power" on bloomberg tv and radio. I am joe mathieu in washington. Congresswoman sheila jackson lee reintroducing the george floyd justice in policing act this week. As we were just discussing with a congresswoman, what are its odds of passage this time? We saw this a couple of years ago. It did pass the house. It did not move through the senate. This is a very different congress in a very different climate politically. What is the future for the bill today? >> It is very unlikely it makes it past the house. Two years ago when it did pass, it was a democratic controlled

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