Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumHarris repeatedly defends response to mental health slur at rally
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris on Saturday repeatedly defended her response to a rallygoer calling President Donald Trump's actions "mentally retarded" at a campaign event, saying that she didn't hear the slur.
As Harris addressed a crowd of voters at a town hall in New Hampshire on Friday, an attendee brought up Trump's potential impeachment before asking Harris, "What are you going to do in the next one year, to diminish the mentally retarded actions" of the president.
The California senator drew ire from disability rights activists when she appeared to laugh at the remark, responding, "Well said."
More: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/story/2019/09/07/kamala-harris-mental-health-slur-trump-1484463
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
George II
(67,782 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Chemisse
(30,793 posts)Which seems pretty disingenuous.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
George II
(67,782 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
IronLionZion
(45,256 posts)The headline is clickbait because they want to evoke an emotional response from people who are sympathetic to the disabled
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Chemisse
(30,793 posts)Last edited Sat Sep 7, 2019, 06:27 PM - Edit history (1)
And thought he said 'mentally defective' or any number of things that would not have been offensive. It must be hard to be perfect in front of a live audience - as Joe Biden knows only too well.
If she DID chuckle knowingly at 'mentally retarded', that would be surprisingly inappropriate.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
LakeArenal
(28,713 posts)I dislike Harris. I resent her actions withFranken. But I know she would never use or condone the word retarded.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
mcar
(42,208 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
WA-03 Democrat
(3,017 posts)The echo chambers are working overtime (thanks Tru$$ia).
Harris would be a wonderful President. Any of our candidates would be the right fit.
GOTV!!
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
JI7
(89,173 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
waveiscoming
(16 posts)At the event you have noise all around and it isn't as clear as the audio makes it out to be. Sounds like she just heard mentally and thought it was in reference to trump.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Joe941
(2,848 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
elocs
(22,474 posts)Inquiring minds want to know.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)No matter what word was used, exploiting stigma towards people who are labeled as cognitively or mentally outside of the norm is a display of ableist bigotry. To endorse it is indefensible.
I say this as a very disappointed disabled person who considers all people who are clinically labeled as disabled as part of the club or family, dealing regularly with bias.
Even more disappointing is that she released a plan for disability education and employment. She should know better if she had disabled advocates working with her.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
bigtree
(85,915 posts)...so critics of Sen. Harris - who has a clear record of defending, advocating, and protecting the rights, well-being, and dignity of the disabled - forget trying to push some phony theme that she's insensitive or hostile to the interests and dignity of disabled individuals.
Anyone doing so should know better.
Link to tweet
Kyung Lah @KyungLahCNN#
NEW: @KamalaHarris disability plan focuses on education and employment opportunities, with an eye to inclusion - CNNPolitics
(CNN)Presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris unveiled her plan for Americans with disabilities on Thursday, with a focus on employment through access to education and social programs.
"As President, Harris will expand access to health care, fight for integrated employment opportunities and fair wages, ensure our emergency preparedness and disaster programs are fully inclusive, fight to adequately fund classrooms to ensure equal access, build a diverse federal workforce that includes people with disabilities and fight for the civil rights of people with disabilities across the country," Harris campaign wrote in a press release.
Kamalas Commitment to Full Inclusion and Civil Rights for People with Disabilities
Aug 29 · 5 min read
Recommitting to building inclusive economic opportunity in America
According to CDC data, about a quarter of people in the United States have a disability. Kamala believes in an America that is fully accessible and inclusive for everyone and her administration will fight to make this a reality across all parts of our society. As president, Kamala will have diverse leaders with disabilities developing all the policies her administration champions, including priorities that will lift up people with disabilities.
To do this we must expand economic opportunity and security for people with disabilities. In 2018, the unemployment rate for workers with disabilities was more than twice that for workers without disabilities. Only 32 percent of people with disabilities who are working-age are employed. On the other hand, 73 percent of people without disabilities in the same age group are employed. Just as we fight to finally eliminate practices that lead to people with disabilities being paid subminimum wages, we also have to speak the truth about how we need to eliminate barriers that make it harder for people with disabilities to fully participate in our workforce.
Under Kamalas leadership, in partnership with the disability community, we can build an America that lives up to the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our country is stronger when everyone is valued, everyone has dignity, and everyone can be part of the competitive labor force.
WHAT SHELL DO:
Shell fight to create inclusive employment opportunities that pay people with disabilities their full value.
Shell pass the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act, which will establish a grant program for states to help redesign business models and strategies to increase employment of people with disabilities in competitive integrated employment.
People with disabilities are both more likely to work in low wage fields as well as be paid less than the minimum wage. Thats why shell pass the Raise the Wage Act, which will not only raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour but will also phase out the subminimum wage.
Shell remove barriers that make it harder for people with disabilities to take advantage of job opportunities.
Kamala will make changes to the vocational rehabilitation system at the Department of Education, which gives grants to states to help people with disabilities prepare for, secure, and retain employment. Kamala will make sure that the grant program covers a wider range of services and supports for a greater number of people to help more people with disabilities get the workplace accommodations, adaptive technology and devices, and other things that can be barriers to finding and maintaining a job.
And shell fight to increase funding for the program so that it can serve everyone who would benefit from assistance under it.
Shell expand accessible, affordable transportation and housing options, which are key supports for anyone participating in the workforce.
Federal civil rights laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act already require that our transportation systems and housing projects be fully accessible. However, these accommodations still have accessibility issues because efforts to make the projects fully accessible are frequently not done at the front-end of the project.
For example, more than a quarter of rail stations across the country are not fully accessible to people with disabilities. The same is true of 12% of the U.S. rail fleet.
Kamala will address this by taking executive action to direct the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to require that funding recipients submit plans detailing how their projects will be fully accessible prior to receiving funding.
Shell fight to pass the IDEA Full Funding Act to make sure that students with disabilities are learning in classrooms that have funding to ensure they can get the education they deserve, which is key to ensuring long-term economic opportunity.
And shell direct her education secretary to increase enforcement of civil rights laws designed to protect that right to an education.
And shell work to increase resources to better prepare teachers to meet the needs of students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms and expand access to post-secondary education for people with disabilities.
Shell fight to finally ratify U.S. participation in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to affirm American leadership in fighting for the civil rights of people with disabilities around the world.
Shell fight to pass the Working Families Tax Credit to allow people without dependent children to take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit. And shell make the Child Tax Credit fully refundable which would be particularly beneficial to families who have children with disabilities.
Because quality, affordable health care is core to economic security, shell fight to pass her Medicare for All plan which addresses the significant barriers to quality health care that children and adults with disabilities face.
Kamalas plan fully covers comprehensive long-term services and supports, as well as assistive technologies and Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) services that are critical to children with disabilities. It also ensures that those long-term services and supports are consumer-directed and are provided in home- and community-based settings.
And it ensures that when families move, or people with disabilities change jobs, their coverage moves with them so that they have uninterrupted access to the care and services they need.
Shell ensure that people with disabilities impacted by disasters have the services and other civil rights protections they are entitled to under the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, so they can return home, to work and school at the same time as the rest of the disaster impacted community.
And, shell make sure the federal government leads by example.
Kamala will recommit us to the goal President Obama established in 2010 to make the federal government a model inclusive employer and strongly enforce Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act. She will direct agencies to create updated plans for how to make the recruitment, hiring, and retention of people with disabilities a priority in her administration. And shell make sure this diverse leadership is represented in senior positions and that there are opportunities for promotion.
Kamala will also take executive action to ensure that the technology the federal government buys, develops, or uses is fully accessible, as is currently required by federal law. This will include requiring each agency to implement a plan to ensure that any new technology developed or acquired is fully accessible before it is deployed, as well as doing an analysis of existing technology that is not compliant and develop a timeline for updating it.
And Kamala will create new senior-level positions in the White House to make sure that the priorities for people with disabilities are incorporated across all of her policymaking, particularly on the Domestic Policy Council and the economic work of her administration.
https://medium.com/@KamalaHarris/kamalas-commitment-to-full-inclusion-and-civil-rights-for-people-with-disabilities-7cfd8adb512 (https://medium.com/@KamalaHarris)
related:
James Singer @Jemsinger Aug 29
In 2006, @KamalaHarris hosted an event to help raise money for an organization that supported developmentally disabled artists.
We are all enriched by the work they created."
https://m.sfgate.com/living/article/FACE-TIME-DISABLED-ARTISTS-WORKS-FOR-SALE-TO-2521161.php
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)If someone can't deal with a bit of mild criticism, they have no business being on the public stage.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
bigtree
(85,915 posts)...remains to be seen if others can deal with the fact that she could not hear the full remark, yet apologized profusely, anyway.
Nothing left for critics but political this-and-that.
____Saturday, Harris took to Twitter to address the issue head on, using the social media platform in a way that shows true leadership. She apologized and tweeted, "When my staff played the video from my town hall yesterday, it was upsetting. I didn't hear the words the man used in that moment, but if I had I would've stopped and corrected him." The California senator added, "I'm sorry. That word and others like it aren't acceptable. Ever."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/08/opinions/kamala-harris-trump-leadership-difference-obeidallah/index.html
...critics won't also get a piece of flesh along with this generous apology for someone else's words spoken at her gathering. This will have to do (although, she's way more generous about this that I think she needed to be. It's a sure bet she'll say even more about it in the future.)
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Devil Child
(2,728 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Gothmog
(143,999 posts)That was a real apology and is sufficient for me
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden