Biden Ends Re-Election Bid, VP Harris Begins Presidential Run

Season 2024 Episode 30 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions

Biden ends re-election bid, endorses Harris, NY election impact & sexual assault law challenged.

President Joe Biden announces the end of his re-election bid, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. We discuss the implications of this historic decision with political analyst Jack O'Donnell and the presidential race's impact on New York elections. Additionally, Daniel Lambright from the NYCLU explains a federal lawsuit challenging New York's Sexual Assault Reform Act.

07/26/2024 | Rating NR

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Biden Ends Re-Election Bid, VP Harris Begins Presidential Run

Season 2024 Episode 30 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions

07/26/2024 | Rating NR

Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback

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[ THEME MUSIC ] >> Welcome to this week's edition of "New York Now.

" I'm Shantel Destra. President Joe Biden announced the end of his bid for re-election in an open letter to the American people released on social media. This decision came three weeks after Biden's questionable debate performance against Donald Trump. The Biden campaign hoped that the debate would prove the president's ability to run a vigorous campaign, but instead it resulted in growing calls for him to step aside from fellow democrats. In a speech from the oval office, Biden said it was time to pass the torch to the new generation. Now with the democratic National Convention less than one month away, Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumptive democratic nominee. Since announcing her campaign Harris has secured over $100 million in donations and an outpouring of endorsements from democrats. To help understand the historic nature of these events and the implications for New York, we spoke with Jack O'Donnell, a democratic political strategist and managing partner of O'Donnell and associates. Here's that conversation. [ THEME MUSIC ] thank you so much for joining us today, Jack. >> My pleasure. thanks for having me on. >> Absolutely. Of course. Now it's been a whirl wind of a week starting with president Joe Biden officially ending his re-election campaign and the letter to the American people over the weekend. This decision, of course, came after about three weeks of growing calls for the president to step aside from members within his own party. So can you help us understand why the president felt this was the best course of action for democrats and for the American people? >> Absolutely. I think as we heard from Joe Biden, you know, he thought his record of accomplishment and his service really qualified him for another term. The problem was beginning with his debate performance and continuing sort of in the weeks after that, you know, his age, his facilities were being questioned and it went from a small group of democrats saying they had a problem with him or had concerns to really all the leadership of the party you any, we saw just before he decided to bow out of re-election, we saw a concerted, coordinated effort from the party leaders, the former speaker, Nancy Pelosi, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, majority leader Chuck Schumer, former President Obama really kind of circling the wagons and telling Joe Biden it was time to go for the good of the party. >> And what did you make of the president's address to the American people this week where he gave some insight into that decision and ultimately said it was time to pass the torch to the new generation? >> I thought it was statesman like. I really thought, again, you heard in the president's voice how much he wanted another term, how much he thought he earned another term. For him to say rather than me pursue my own ambition, I'm going to do what I think is right and move on, but not just walk away, right, I mean, he really has handed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, and I think that's significant. I'm optimistic that she's going to be the next president and I think that will be a big part of Joe Biden's legacy. In addition to the legislative accomplishments but helping prepare and hand the torch over to the first woman president, I think, would be a crowning achievement. >> And as you mentioned, Vice President Kamala Harris announced her campaign for presidency and she did secure the endorsement of the president. VPs are historically known as behind-the-curtain players. How should the Vice President reintroduce herself to the American people while on the campaign trail? >> I think Vice President Harris has had a really heck of a week. The democratic party is made up of so many diverse groups and people from different regions, and the fact that they call came together within a couple. days to endorse her, right, she's already well above the delegate threshold to earn the nomination and she has raised an inordinate amount of money, over $100 million dollars as have outside democratic groups. I think that energy has been really contagious and I think we saw it in Harris' speeches this week. I think she's leading off as a prosecutor, right, as someone who has this experience and really putting that difference between her and her opponent, but she's also done it with a lot of enthusiasm. I mean, the way her campaign is sort of embraced on the TikTok mood all summer, sort of all these pieces are incredibly generational, I think, and that's another big part of this is that, you know, the torch has been handed on, as you said. >> As you mentioned, she secured so many endorsements and has raised more than $100 million within the past week. So what do you make of this excitement around her campaign and her robust campaign war chest and how will this campaign be different from her last race that she ran in 2020? >> What a good question. I think there are two real factors here. One is that democrats are energized to beat Donald Trump and they were concerned that Joe Biden wasn't the right person to do that again and so a lot of folks were sitting on their hands. They were depressed. They were concerned, you know, a lot of objections there in terms of democrats. His decision sort of unleashed that. But it's just as much that I think people are genuinely excited about Kamala Harris. Again, she has approached this with an energy, with a have every, with a sort of meeting the moment that we haven't seen before, and so I think that's certainly different. As opposed to four years ago, I think really being the standard bearer here and the experience she's had as the Vice President. You mentioned that the Vice President is behind the scenes, but she has been. But she's been traveling around the country. She has been connecting with voters and equally important with democratic leaders. She has been the party's sort of leading surrogate on choice, on abortion rights, and really an advocate for women in this administration, you know, we know during the rescue plan, she was pushing for the child care tax credit, so she now has a bunch of experiences, relationships and I think you see that in her couple campaign appearances this week. She's really grown as a candidate. She came out with that confidence, that swagger, that style that I think is going to be just a really important contrast to Donald Trump. >> Now focusing on New York, Governor Kathie Hochul and several other elected officials have endorsed Harris, including those in swing congressional seats as well as Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and house minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. Of course, New York is historically a blue state when it comes to presidential races. But what role do you think the state plays in securing the presidency for Harris? >> Well, I think the endorsement by the delegates from New York was a big deal helping her forward to cross that threshold and kind of put any doubts behind her about any inner party fights. New York obviously is also a big place where presidential candidates can raise money. I think it's more the other way around here. I think you heard an almost sigh of relief from New York democrats. Two weeks ago, the Republicans were talking about how Trump was contesting New York and you're not going to hear that anymore with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket. The fact that these swing district congressional candidates are jumping onboard with her, I think is a really big deal in the sort of confidence that you see from democrats in the democratic party now that Kamala Harris is leading our ticket. >> It was interesting to see lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado breaking ranks with the Governor in calling the president to step aside before he ultimately came to that decision. Where do you think such a public difference in political opinion leaves the Governor and the lieutenant Governor moving forward? >> Well, I think relationships between a Governor and lieutenant Governor are always strained. We've heard that from this Governor talking about her experience as a lieutenant Governor. You know, we heard it from other lieutenant Governors who stepped away and sort have been able to talk about it a little more. I think there's always some friction there. That said, you know, the Governor said she wasn't angry. She understood that this was a personal decision by lieutenant Governor Delgado and I think I'll take it at her word. >> And looking more broadly beyond the presidential race, in what ways do you suspect might Biden stepping aside and Harris being the presumptive democratic nominee will impact the swing district congressional races as well as the down battleground races in New York state this year? >> I think there's two immediate reactions to that the first and foremost is the sort of unleashed (laughs) openness of democratic confidence and enthusiasm that came with that. You see that in the money that the Harris campaign has raised. You see that in the enthusiasm of democrats. In swing districts and safe districts, in red and blue districts across the country, lining up behind her. So that enthusiasm and sort of what that means for democratic turnout, I think that's so essential to swing districts, but everybody down ballot, that is going to have a huge impact. I also think having the first African-American woman at the top of the ticket, you know, is going to do a lot for African-American turnout. The Trump campaign, again, for month has been talking how they're trying-- they expected to make inroads among African-American voters who are often some of the most loyal and enthusiastic democrats. I don't think we're going to hear much more from the Trump campaign about that. I think Kamala Harris will go a long way toward locking in that vote. >> And with just a few weeks until the democratic convention, what strategies should democrats in New York have to shore up support for the Vice President and secure those big wins in the congressional swing districts heading into the final days of election season? >> Yeah.

I think we have seen the democratic party really come together behind her, which in New York, as you know, any time anyone in New York gets together on something, it's incredibly rare. So the fact that you saw, you know, Kathie Hochul, you saw swing district democrats like Pat Ryan. You've seen folks in even more moderate districts, the John Mannion who is running for Congress, the fact that they united behind her is, I think, a really big deal. You know, we've also seen the Governor really trying to deploy the state party in a way that we haven't seen in a long time to try to engage democrats up and down the ballot. I think the convention and Kamala Harris laying out her vision for this campaign and for this country is just going to play right into those factors and really help New York-- help democrats across New York. >> Well, certainly a lot to look forward to as we look ahead to the democratic convention next month and as things continue to ram up in this historic presidential race. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for now. We thank you so much for joining us today. >> Thanks so much for having me. It was fun. >> We were speaking with Jack O'Donnell, political strategist and managing partner of O'Donnell and associates. [ THEME MUSIC ] >> For updates on the presidential race, you can visit our website. That's at NYnow.org. Now turning to another important topic. In 2001, the state adopted the sexual assault reform act, which restricts where people on the sex offender registry can live and frequent. A few weeks ago, the New York civil liberties union filed a class action federal lawsuit challenging that state law claiming that it's too vague and restrictive. We connected with Daniel lambright, a senior attorney with the union to understand the lawsuit and what's next. [ THEME MUSIC ] thank you so much for joining us today, Daniel. >> Thank you for having me. >> Can you give us some background on your federal class action lawsuit meant to challenge the sexual assault reform act in New York state? >> Yes.

So let me first start off by saying that this lawsuit is premised on the belief that banishment is not an appropriate way to deal with anyone who has been formerly incarcerated or convicted of an offense, whether that's a drug offense or a sexual offense. With that out of the way, SARA, also known as the sexual assault reform act, or executive law 259-C-14 prohibits all people who are level 3, or have been convicted of an offense against a minor, from entering into a school zone. And school zone is defined very broadly to mean basically anywhere that's publicly accessible, including streets, including stores, including parking lots, and that effectively means that people are banished from entering into society and this has caused our plaintiffs and our lawsuits to be homeless, to be stuck in homeless shelters, to be in fear that going throughout their city will result in reincarceration. >> You briefly touched on this earlier, but from your purview, how exactly is the law, as written, considered vague? >> So it's vague in many different senses. So one of the ways that it's vague is that there are no kind of guidelines on measurement. It's also vague in where it applies to, so folks generally who are subject to SARA don't know whether going through to various locations means that they're in violation of SARA, a huge part of the problem is that schools are everywhere in urban areas. So over 90% of residences are within a school zone. Over 90% of clinics and hospitals are in a school zone. 91% of soup kitchens are in school zones. 88% of public libraries are in school zones. Meaning that people can't go about their daily lives without being in fear that they're going to violate SARA and end up reincarcerated. >> So is there a way to make the state law less vague, but still ensure that people on the sex offender registry are not able to enter school zones? >> So, you know, what I would say to that is that really, this law-- there are ways that the legislature can probably make it less vague. Those aren't worth it because this law has very little basis in any imperical reality. So the law is fundamentally premised on this notion that sexual offending against children occurs by folks who are kind of waiting in the bushes for kids to come out of school, and that's just not how that occurs. You know, over 90% of sexual offenses against children occur within the family by people who are known to the child and a law like this is not preventing-- does nothing to prevent those offenses from occurring. Secondly, the law's based on a really outdated idea that people who commit sexual offenses are high risk recidivists and that's also false. Decades of information have shown that they recidivate no greater than any other type of offender. So I would say that the legislature should just scrap this and get rid of this and ensure that-- and have real responses to sexual assault rather than these kind of fake scare tactics, and another thing to note, parole officers can still impose individual restrictions on people who need those individual restrictions. So for example, if a parole officer knows that somebody who has, in the past, you know, used their proximity to a school to offend a parole officer, he or she can put an individual restriction on that person rather than kind of blanketly imposing it on everybody. Many of whom who have never even had an offense against a child. >> Since filing the lawsuit, what has the response been like? >> Well, you know, I think that a lot of people don't understand what this law is. A lot of people are, you know, are misinformed about how sexual offending happens and I think that-- and the lawsuit has helped to educate people and helped to humanize a population that is constantly demonized in the press and throughout kind of popular consciousness that, you know, our clients are individuals who are trying to reintegrate back into society. You know, one of our clients served 39 years in prison. He's 68 years old. He has a disability that affects his mobility and being stuck in a homeless shelter due to SARA is hell for him. He wants to kind of make-- he wants to be able to have the ability to take the practices that he learned in prison and the reforming of his life that happened in prison and apply it to outside world such that he can, you know, become a productive member of society. >> And if the law is overturned what can or should be done on the state level to help New Yorkers feel protected? Is there anything that should be done from a state agency, for example, or through legislative action? >> What I would say is that parole officers already have the ability to impose narrow conditions on individuals who need those restrictions. So I would say that there's no need for another version of SARA, which blanketly applies to everyone because parole officers already have that discretion and ability to do that based on individual's circumstances. What I would say is if legislature-- legislators want to be serious about addressing these issues and protecting the community, then they need to be serious about funding things like helping people to reintegrate and kind of come back into society as full members. Because that's all really our plaintiffs want to do. They want to move on with their lives. They want to get jobs. They want to get stable housing and they want to productively become citizens of the community. >> I know other states have had similar lawsuits brought forth. For example, in Michigan, California and Rhode Island. So how does the case in New York resemble or differ from those lawsuits in those other states? >> Yeah.

So they're all very similar. The law in Rhode Island was very similar to the law that we're challenging here. The law in Michigan was a little bit different in the wording. However, they're all kind of based on the same premise that they're trying to banish people convicted of sex offenses from entering into certain areas and the Courts in both of those cases found that those laws were unconstitutionally vague and that's something that we would hope to SDNY, southern district of New York, would similarly find. >> I know you've underscored that the law is unconstitutional as we're in. I'm curious have you had any conversations with state lawmakers or the executive chamber to try to address this legislatively? >> We have not. You know, I think part of the problem is that people convicted of sex offenses are an easy kind of political punching bag. You know, no one likes people convicted of sex offenses. So it's easy for politicians to kind of throw them under the bus when they need to look tough on crime. So you know, I don't think we anticipate that there's good legislative fix for this law, which is why we're taking the judicial route and you know, what I would say to legislators is that, you know, parole has ample ability to, like I said before, pick out the people who need this condition. We don't need a blanket statewide law and a blanket statewide law is bad for public safety. This is probably one of the areas where the law doesn't need to be rewritten. It needs to be abolished. >> And lastly, looking ahead, what are the next steps now that the lawsuit has been filed in court? >> So I expect that we will try to move the lawsuit as quickly as possible. We will almost certainly ask the court to find that the law is unconstitutional and to ask the Court to enjoin the law from being enforced. And you know, we just have to wait and see how, you know, there will be a period of discovery. There will be some back and forth around that, but we're going to try to move this lawsuit as fast as possible because every day that the lawsuit isn't moving is-- are days where people are stuck in homeless shelters, are days where people are in fear that if they walk to go to the hospital or buy a can of food that they're going to violated and we want to make sure that they don't have to suffer under this regime, and we want to make sure that the public doesn't have to suffer under a regime that is detrimental to public safety. >> Well, it sounds like there's definitely a lot of work ahead, but unfortunately, that's all the time that we have. We thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us about this lawsuit today. >> Thank you for covering this very important issue. >> And we were speaking with Daniel Lambright, senior staff attorney for the New York civil liberties union. [ THEME MUSIC ] >> And for more information on the lawsuit aimed at challenging the sex offender law in New York state, you can visit our website. Again, that's at NYnow.org. Well, that does it for this edition of "New York Now.

" thank you for tuning in and see you next week. [ THEME MUSIC ] >>Announcer: funding for "New York Now" is provided by WNET.