Archives for October 2019

Pete Buttigieg tries to solve his South Carolina puzzle

[OPINION] ROCK HILL, S.C. — Why was South Bend, Indiana, mayor and Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg in South Carolina over the weekend, with a busy schedule that included tailgating at a historically black college homecoming and delivering remarks at an AME Zion worship service?

“To say that I want to be the president who can pick up the pieces, that we’ve got to be ready not just to defeat this president but to guide the country forward,” he confidently told me. “I have my eyes on that moment and what America’s going to need.”

It’s quite a tall order for a candidate polls show in single digits in the first-in-the-South primary, where he is still largely unknown to the African Americans who make up the majority of the state’s Democratic voters, even as his campaign coffers and Iowa poll numbers rise. In a weekend packed with public appearances, he and a diverse group of campaign workers and surrogates, including some from South Bend, were trying to catch up — and distribute those “African Americans for Pete” buttons.

N.C. Congressional Districts, Impeachment Inquiry

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It has been a busy week in politics, both in the state and nationally.

In North Carolina, a three-judge panel of state judges said the state cannot use the current congressional districts as drawn for the 2020 elections while the lawsuit against them proceeds. This may mean the state’s March 3 congressional primaries could be moved in a competitive primary season with crucial contests up and down the ballot.

And in Washington, a decorated Army officer’s testimony drew attention and partisan attacks, while House Democrats plan a vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry.

POLITICAL WRAP: al-Baghdadi Military Operation; Mayor Pete Campaigns in Rock Hill

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – President Donald Trump is declaring that the leader of Islamic terrorist group ISIS is dead.

And Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg spent the weekend campaigning in South Carolina.

Click above for more in this week’s political wrap with WCCB Charlotte political contributor Mary C. Curtis.

With ‘lynching’ comment, Trump retreats to his racist comfort zone

OPINION — When Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley sent her 14-year-old son, Emmett, to visit relatives in Mississippi, she never thought he would return in a casket, a victim of a mother’s nightmare and America’s shame. A group of white men kidnapped, tortured, mutilated and murdered him that summer in 1955 for the “crime” of flirting with a white woman, who years later admitted to lying about their supposed interaction.

Mr. President, that’s a lynching.

President Trump, Democratic Challengers to Attend Criminal Justice Forum in South Carolina

Mr. Trump will participate in a criminal justice forum Friday at Benedict College in Columbia.

POLITICAL WRAP: President Trump Speaking in SC at Criminal Justice Reform Event

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Happening this week: President Donald Trump is visiting South Carolina as part of a bi-partisan event on criminal justice reform.

The White House confirms Trump will appear Friday at a forum at Benedict College in Columbia. The event marks Trump’s first visit to a historically black college or university.

Some of the democrats vying to challenge him are also planning to attend… including front-runners Former Vice-President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Elijah Cummings, a man of character and the best of Baltimore

OPINION — In the summertime, Baltimore can be hot as blazes with humidity to match. Trying to cool off in a public pool would be quite an ordinary outing for an 11-year-old boy. But for young Elijah Cummings in 1962, it turned into a nightmare in the still largely segregated city. White adults and children resisting integration yelled, “Go back to where you came from” — sound familiar? — to children and, over the heads of a police line, threw rocks and bottles, one of which caught young Elijah in the face.

That day taught Cummings he had rights, he later said, and it made him determined to become a lawyer despite teachers who dismissed his dream as impossible. With strong parents and supporters such as his boss at a drug store, who paid his college admission fee, Cummings fulfilled that dream and so much more.

The experience and the lesson he learned from it told you a lot about the boy who would become the man, a fighter for justice and a leader with a sense of right and wrong, even when there was a price to pay —lasting physical and emotional scars, reminders of work left to be done.

Can church ever be separate from state at a Franklin Graham rally?

[OPINION] CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After the Rev. Billy Graham became less a counselor of presidents and more a political player, particularly in the unfortunate case of Richard Nixon, he learned a lesson. The Rev. Franklin Graham, heir to his father’s legacy, has chosen a different path, arguably becoming as well known for his politics as for his role as a spiritual leader.

Considering his remarks as he brought his “Decision America” tour to his hometown this past weekend, it’s a box Graham the younger is not exactly comfortable being placed in. But for the preacher who credited the “God factor,” in part, for Donald Trump’s 2016 win, that narrative is set. Vocal support of the president pre- and post-election exists right alongside his philanthropic and mission outreach — such as recent efforts in the Bahamas — through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse.

Before he took the stage, and as Christian musician Jeremy Camp warmed up the crowd, I asked Graham about where he stands and about the qualities he admires in Trump, who is making his own news as he battles an impeachment inquiry with increasingly rough and divisive language, on Twitter and at rallies, which is anything but Christian.

Democratic Debate Wrap: Any Game Changers?

CHARLOTTENC — A dozen democratic presidential candidates taking the stage in Ohio Tuesday night — in a critical debate that could reshape the race for the nomination.

Health care once again a major topic as well as the impeachment inquiry and President Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.

Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis weighs in on the debate and what it means for the race.

POLITICAL WRAP: Democratic Debate Preview; Franklin Graham in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – WCCB Charlotte Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis joins WCCB NEWS @ 6:30 to preview Tuesday night’s democratic presidential debate and talk about her interview with Franklin Graham, who visited Charlotte as part of his Decision America tour on Saturda