RINGSIDE POLITICS – FEBRUARY 19, 2021
Written by WGSO Producer on February 22, 2021
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Welcome to another edition of Ringside Politics with Jeff Crouere
Today’s Hot Topics:
1) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday teachers may not have to be vaccinated to return to school depending on the coronavirus caseload in the community.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said what school districts really need is more money to make safety improvements for reopening and that’s what the House intends to deliver next week when Democrats seek to pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief legislation.
“I think teachers should be vaccinated. I don’t know that they must be vaccinated before going in,” Pelosi said Thursday at a news conference at the Capitol.
2) The White House announced a sweeping immigration bill Thursday that would create an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of immigrants already in the country and provide a faster track for undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children.
3) With coronavirus spiking in the Great Plains and parts of the Midwest, South Dakota – often promoted as a success story by its high-profile Republican Gov. Kristi Noem – has emerged as a major U.S. hotspot, with one of the worst rates of new infections in the country.
Cases have climbed from a daily average of about 220 in mid-September to more than 430 as of this week, and the number of people currently hospitalized for COVID has risen by more than 50% over the last two weeks. But Noem has resisted taking more aggressive measures to curb the outbreak, like a statewide facemask mandate or restrictions on businesses.
On Twitter last week, she claimed that South Dakota was proof that “you don’t need lockdowns to be responsible and flatten the curve.”
4) Joe Biden once spoke about jailing employers who hire “illegals,” said sanctuary cities shouldn’t be allowed to violate federal law, and argued a fence was needed stop “tons” of drugs coming into the country from “corrupt Mexico.”
Then-Sen. Biden’s past comments, which he made in the run-up to and during the 2008 presidential race, show an approach to the issue of immigration that could run afoul of the party’s more liberal wing as Biden seeks the Democratic nomination to take on President Donald Trump in 2020. It also shows how Biden’s long record in government can at times provide a contrast to where the Democratic Party has evolved in recent years.
Speaking to a South Carolina rotary club in November 2006, Biden touted his support for the Secure Fence Act – a bill that authorized 700 miles of double-layered fence on the border through more than a billion dollars in appropriations. The bill was also supported by then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. CNN’s KFile reviewed the video, which had been posted on YouTube at the time.
“Folks, I voted for a fence, I voted, unlike most Democrats – and some of you won’t like it – I voted for 700 miles of fence,” Biden told the group. “But, let me tell you, we can build a fence 40 stories high – unless you change the dynamic in Mexico and – and you will not like this, and – punish American employers who knowingly violate the law when, in fact, they hire illegals. Unless you do those two things, all the rest is window dressing.”
Today’s Guests:
1) Dr. Frank Turek of Summit Ministries – joins us in the first hour to discuss the importance of maintaining conservatism in the country.
2) Dr. Ramon Vargas, New Orleans Center for Clinical Research, Alliance for Multispeciality Research – calls in to discuss the pandemic and public health and safety.
3) Donna Carol Voss, Ringside All-Star – joins the show to talk about the hot topics of the week and opine with callers
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