Top Democrats are playing the race card… over a virus.
A letter signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), as well as House Reps. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) is demanding the federal government release new data, so they can prove “racial disparities” in the Coronavirus response.
CBS News reports:
Five Democrats in Congress are demanding data from the federal government about racial disparities in the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The lawmakers said in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that the government is “currently failing to collect and publicly report on the racial and ethnic demographic information” for COVID-19 tests and patients.
“Without demographic data, policymakers and researchers will have no way to identify and address ongoing disparities and health inequities that risk accelerating the impact of the novel coronavirus and the respiratory disease it causes,” the letter said.
“Although COVID-19 does not discriminate along racial or ethnic lines, existing racial disparities and inequities in health outcomes and health care access may mean that the nation’s response to preventing and mitigating its harms will not be felt equally in every community.”
Not to be outdone, socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is also playing the race card.
As the popularity of liberal New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) rises, in large part because of his Coronavirus response, Ocasio-Cortez has decided to attack him as racist over an executive order that allows homeowners to defer mortgage payments.
“If you called for a suspension or moratorium on mortgage payments, then we should also call for that same treatment on rent payments,” Ocasio-Cortez said, in an interview on WNYC.
Under Cuomo’s plan, homeowners wouldn’t have their payments waived: their mortgage would simply extend a few months longer on the back end. But Ocasio-Cortez didn’t let that stop her from playing the race card.
“We’re kind of creating a class and race issue. We’re essentially rewarding and offering preferential treatment to landowners and folks who are more wealthy, and we’re not offering that same kind of relief to renters.”