Month: May 2020

With COVID-19 forcing numerous Democratic state primaries to be rescheduled, and with the possibility of a virus resurgence in the fall, many in the media are beginning to focus their attention to a pandemic general election.

One of the ideas being bandied about for November 3 is mail-in voting.

While several states already run entirely mail-in voting processes, and others provide ways to obtain absentee ballots for a variety of reasons, a nationwide mail-in election would be a stunning undertaking.

Many progressives argue for mail-in voting due to ease of use and its potential for increased participation, and many conservatives argue against it because of the generally lax security protocols surrounding the method.

In light of this ongoing debate, The Daily Wire recently spoke with Catherine Engelbrecht, founder and president of True the Vote, an organization “dedicated to election integrity,” according to its official website.

In the interview below, Engelbrecht discusses voter fraud, mail-in security protocol, what certain states are reportedly doing to make mail-in access incredibly easy to obtain, and much more. If you would prefer to listen to the interview rather than read it, the audio can be found at the bottom of this piece. Time stamps will be provided in writing after each question.

DW: Is there evidence of widespread mail-in voter fraud such that it could alter the outcome of a state or national election? (0:03)

ENGELBRECHT: Yes. One that comes to mind – maybe the most notorious of late – happened in 2008 when Al Franken was working to defeat the incumbent Norm Coleman for a Senate position in Minnesota. After months of recounts and new mail-in ballots being discovered each time – each time benefiting Al Franken – the margin finally spread to a point that Al Franken won. They called the election.

He went on to become the final vote necessary for the Affordable Care Act to pass. Without him, the count would have been such that that bill would not have passed.

Then, once all of the dust settled, and there was a closer look given to those ballots that had come in, it was learned that almost 400 of them were cast by convicted felons who had voted illegally. But that wasn’t known in the flurry of the mail-ins, and it forever altered the direction of our country.

DW: Those 400 tipped the scales? (1:19)

ENGELBRECHT: Right. The margin was 312, and then they came back and found almost 400 that shouldn’t have counted.

[In a post-interview addition, Engelbrecht said: Another more recent example is out of North Carolina, where a GOP operative was indicted on criminal charges for running an illegal absentee ballot-gathering operation (more here). And in any case, regarding the Franken example, numerous reports rightfully raised the question whether he truly would have won – not only because of the felons’ votes (examples here and here), but also because of the legal jousting after Election Day, as outlined by the Wall Street Journal at the time.]

DW: What are the benefits of mail-in voting, and would the cost-benefit analysis be positive given that it might prevent in-person forms of fraud? (1:34)

ENGELBRECHT: Well, I think that there are instances in which voting by mail is appropriate. Certainly if you’re elderly or infirm, and you cannot go to a polling place, you need to have a way to still have your voice heard. If you’re out of the county or out of the state, if you’re overseas, certainly the military.

Every state has different rules by which they determine absentee standards. I think that those rules work in their states, and that’s fine. True the Vote is not against mail-in voting. It’s the notion of mail-in voting without the safeguards that protect against vote fraud. That is really the story here, is that with this push to mail-ins nationwide, what is also being lobbied for and passed in these states are the removal of the fraud provisions – like the removal of the ability to compare signatures, the removal of any form of voter ID. Those are the things that make this process incredibly troubling because there are so few fraud provisions in mail-in to begin with, and the fact that they’re being now stripped away is going to leave the upcoming general election in a very vulnerable state.

DW: Could you take me through the process of what the allegedly most secure mail-in ballot operations are, from sending it out to the return, and what procedures are in place primarily to maintain security? (3:26)

ENGELBRECHT: Well again, every state manages their process differently, and I’m the first one to give deference to the fact that states need to be able to run according to their population what makes sense for them. With that in mind, though, to have a process where the voter who is wishing to cast that ballot by mail can apply for an absentee ballot and be given a serialized ballot that’s attached to that voter’s name, that offers some form of identification, and a signature, and ideally some form of witness, and then have that sent back in a secured envelope for review by a ballot review board that confirms all of the requisite information, including a signature verification.

But that process in and of itself is challenging enough to manage at the current levels. You take this now and you grow it exponentially, and the very few safeguards that are attendant in the process being stripped away, there’s no rational way to believe that we’re going to have a process that results in a free, and fair, and accurate count.

DW: Can you talk about some of those specific actions that are being taken in certain states to what you call “strip away the securities”? (5:16)

ENGELBRECHT: Absolutely, and in fact we’ve gone so far as to start an initiative where we are suing states that are taking such extreme measures to force this new process, if you will.

To give you some examples, in Virginia, the governor there – which True the Vote is suing the governor of Virginia for this very reason – in order to enact mail-in voting across the state instantly, the governor declared everybody in Virginia to be disabled, which would then meet the standard for their purposes to usher in full mail-in. Along with that, he removed the security provisions of signature comparison, and removed some of the standards around postmarks.

Again, those are the threadbare ways to affirm the accuracy, the integrity of a ballot – and they are being taken away in Virginia.

In Nevada, another place where we’re suing, the secretary of state there, by administrative fiat, announced that the whole state was going to be mail-in, and same thing, she removed the signature provisions. Then you saw another lawsuit being filed by the Democratic Party in Clark County that was settled in a friendly mystery agreement that we still haven’t been able to lay eyes on. A bizarre situation.

But one of the outcomes, according to Marc Elias’ tweets anyway, was that Clark County had agreed to hire vote harvesters. Even though vote harvesting is illegal in the state of Nevada, Clark County is now putting them on their payroll. So, there’s a lot of moving parts and pieces to this, [that] I believe points to a much broader narrative that is not about providing a safe and secure environment during a health crisis by way of mail-ins. I think it’s about exploiting the weaknesses of a process, and manipulating those weaknesses to advantage, and it’s happening with breathtaking speed.

DW: Prior to my question about what True the Vote is going to be trying to do to make this process more secure, I have one more question about potential voter fraud. That is, and you just mentioned it, is ballot harvesting a widespread issue in states with mail-in voting? (7:57)

ENGELBRECHT: Absolutely, and becoming more so. If Nancy Pelosi has her way, ballot harvesting is going to be standard fare. What ballot harvesting does specifically is, it empowers community organizers, special interest groups, to both distribute and collect ballots, without limitation. That has so many problems attendant to it, we could go through them all – but the one that always comes to mind for me first is what this means in vulnerable communities, particularly in communities where you have a higher population of the elderly, who can be intimidated.

Here in Texas, we’re part of a case that was filed with the secretary of state and attorney general that proved up ballot harvesting in nursing homes, and how these harvesters were using the residents in ways that were abusive toward these same ends.

Vote harvesting goes well beyond the pale of what many states do to give the opportunity for a close family member or friend to bring in a ballot. Rather, vote harvesting is a free-for-all where these groups are bidding for money to collect as many as they can, distribute as many as they can, and it turns the entire intent on its head, and doesn’t serve the voters well.

DW: What does True the Vote want to do to make the mail-in voting process more secure, especially as it might become more prevalent because of COVID-19? (10:10)

ENGELBRECHT: True the Vote believes strongly, our reason for existence is, that every eligible voter should have assurance that their vote counts, and is counted, that they can be heard through their voice of the vote, and mail-in ballots are going to muddle that in ways that frankly are going to be hard to get ahead of because of the volume of paper that’s going to be hitting these county offices, these municipalities, that just aren’t set up to deal with it. So, on the front end, what we’re trying to do is in the courts, trying to stop as much of this wanton disregard for the constitutionality of protecting the right to vote, not diluting your vote, and we’re trying to stop it.

However, certainly no matter what happens, the absentee provision is going to raise the number of mail-in ballots that are going to hit the states, no matter how you look at it. So to that end, we are training volunteers to work inside of the counties’ offices, as volunteers for mail-in ballot review boards, for canvassing boards, to try to help assure that processes are followed because we’re going to need millions of hands on deck for these manual processes that are going to have to be relied upon for the purposes of tallying these votes.

On the front end, we’re just trying to uphold the Constitution in the courts. On the other end, we’re mobilizing volunteers to do what they can to help assure that the rule of law is followed inside of those counties and municipalities.

DW: Do you foresee a future where mail-in balloting could become the norm and still be secure? (12:22)

ENGELBRECHT: No. I do foresee, if Americans don’t take hold of this issue and engage, I do foresee a future where our elections are federalized, and mail-in or even online voting, could become the only option provided. But is that going to be secure? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And it’s a disgrace because in the age of Amazon one-click, there’s no reason to not have a system in place now where you can validate identity, residency, and citizenship in real time, where you can securely provide a process that, at minimum, has a standard of voter ID. We’re the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t use a standard for voter ID.

Other countries look at our process and laugh, and the only explanation for why our process is as porous as it is, is that it can be used to partisan advantage. That’s the only reason that we don’t solve this. Because it is solvable. It’s just so easy to manipulate it that the interest is not there to push a free and fair process for fear of what it may show.

DW: Is there anything that we haven’t touched on in this interview that you are interested in expressing or getting across to our readership? (14:20)

ENGELBRECHT: This is about so much more than mail-in ballots. This is about a fundamental, strategic, long-planned effort to upend elections, and it just so happens to coincide with a health crisis that is being used in full measure to exploit these processes. Americans are such, we’re such trusting people, and we so want to believe that this process of our elections is still steeped with honor and integrity. There is a movement afoot now across this country, hundreds of millions of dollars are being pushed into exploiting this mail-in ballot opportunity, and removing all of the attendant fraud provisions.

If we don’t do something now, we are looking at having our presidency decided in the courts, we are looking at a system that could very well implode, and it will lay the perfect trap for the federalization of elections. This is a very serious situation – every day there’s a new lawsuit filed to impact the situation in ways that destabilize the process.

Americans should take hold of this now, and wake up, because this year, just voting isn’t going to be enough. We need as many people willing to participate in the process, willing to speak out, willing to be working inside of those county offices, reviewing the ballots, and upholding the integrity of the process, and just reclaiming the process broadly. We’ve for so long ceded this ground to the government and thought, “Oh, well, they’ve got this all under control.” We’re about to see, no they do not.

Don’t exchange convenience for security. Don’t believe the hype. It is not as it is being presented.

Listen to the full interview (aside from the post-interview addition noted above) here:

The Daily Wire would like to thank Catherine Engelbrecht for taking the time to speak with us about this issue.

For more information about True the Vote, click here.

The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.

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King Fahad Mosque in Culver City, CA

Socialism, Sharia law and Islam are creeping in while we are all distracted with authoritarian Coronavirus lockdown orders.

The Muslim community has been flexing its muscle since government officials have ordered unconstitutional lockdown orders across the country.

Culver City is the latest Southern California city to allow the Islamic call to prayer, or “adhan,” to blare five times a day from a loudspeaker (beginning at 4:30 AM) during the Coronavirus shutdown.

Many residents in Culver City however say the Islamic call to prayer is too loud and made formal complaints to the police department.

Mahmood Navi stood on the roof of King Fahad Mosque and used a microphone to belt out the Islamic all to prayer.

The mosque has a giant blue and white minaret that towers over the street in Culver City.

WATCH (looks and sounds like the Middle East):

Feel The Sound Of Azan

Historic moment #King_Fahad_Mosque Azan on the loudspeaker for the first time Culver city California pic.twitter.com/sn0YsLw3UK

— Irfan Raaz Hadi ( عرفان ) (@IrfanRaazHadi) May 16, 2020

The police department revoked the amplified noise permit after numerous complaints from residents.

However, three days later, the city reinstated the permit if the mosque agreed to lower the volume.

Los Angeles Time reported:

Outside the Culver City mosque, some pedestrians stopped in their tracks when they first heard the adhan, seemingly surprised. This was something new, and it was not altogether clear how it would be received — as with many things Muslim in the U.S.

But in Culver City, the call to prayer did not go unchallenged for long.

After four days, on May 18, the city’s police department revoked the amplified noise permit, citing people congregating at the mosque in violation of the county health order, as well as “numerous loud noise complaints from area residents.”

“We have had and will continue to have a great relationship with mosque leadership,” said Capt. Jason Sims with the Culver City Police Department. “We are certainly happy to help with facilitating any type of service that is not in violation of county health orders.”

Three days later, the city changed course again, reinstating the permit on the condition that the mosque lower the volume.

Meanwhile, on the Nextdoor social networking app, debates raged between neighbors.

Recall, For the first time in the history of Minnesota, the Muslim call to prayer was broadcast over an outdoor speaker placed over the rooftop of Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.

The post Islamic Call to Prayer Blaring 5 Times a Day During Coronavirus Lockdown Sparks Noise Complaints in Los Angeles (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Trump: "I Have A Chance To Break The Deep State"

Tyler Durden

Sat, 05/23/2020 – 16:10

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Black Entertainment Television (BET) founder Robert Johnson blasted Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday after Biden made a remark about the black community that was widely deemed as racist.

During an interview on “The Breakfast Club” with co-host Charlamagne Tha God, Biden, unprompted by a question, said, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

“Vice President Biden’s statement today represents the arrogant and out-of-touch attitude of a paternalistic white candidate who has the audacity to tell Black people, the descendants of slaves, that they are not Black unless they vote for him,” Johnson told Fox News. “This proves unequivocally that the Democratic nominee believes that Black people owe him their vote without question; even though, we as Black people know it is exactly the opposite. He should spend the rest of his campaign apologizing to every Black person he meets.”

Johnson, who is America’s first black billionaire, said last year that the Democrat party “has moved too far to the left.”

“And for that reason, I don’t have a particular candidate in the party at this time,” Johnson continued. “I think at the end of the day, if a Democrat is going to beat Trump, then that person, he or she, will have to move to the center and you can’t wait too long to do that.”

At the time, Johnson praised the pre-pandemic economy that the Trump administration had built, saying, “the economy is doing great, and it’s reaching populations that heretofore had very bad problems in terms of jobs and employments and the opportunities that come with employment … so African-American unemployment is at its lowest level.”

In 2018, Johnson gave credit to President Donald Trump for the economy, saying, “I believe that if you take into account the Trump tax cut, you take into account the drop in unemployment and particularly unemployment for African-Americans, it’s the lowest it’s ever been in history. And you take into account the fact that interest rates are fairly stable, they will probably drift up, but so far.”

“And I think the business community is committed to reinvest capital that they get from some of the tax advantages and that as a result of that, I think the economy is going to grow,” Johnson continued.

As recently as last November, Johnson said he did not believe that any of the Democrat presidential candidates were strong enough to beat Trump.

“If you take a snapshot today, I don’t think that group is capable of beating Donald Trump, despite what the polls say,” Johnson said. “I do not see anybody in the Democratic primary race today that is enough in the center where I believe most are the voters are, and particularly where most African Americans are.”

The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.  

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Another 2.4 million workers filed for unemployment claims last week, bringing the 10-week total to nearly 39 million. If all of these represent separate claims, that means that almost 1 in 4 workers has filed for unemployment since the coronavirus shutdowns began.

That’s bad news because unemployment is undesirable at best, and devastating at worst.

The situation has both short-term and long-term consequences for unemployed individuals, and really, it’s to no one’s advantage. At least not normally.

But now, because of Congress’ problematic additional unemployment benefit of $600, unemployment has become advantageous—even preferable—to some workers, employers, and state and local governments.

>>> When can America reopen? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, is gathering America’s top thinkers together to figure that out. Learn more here.

Instead of simply providing workers with a higher percentage of their usual earnings than the roughly 40% to 50% that state unemployment systems normally provide—which was appropriate and had bipartisan support—Congress messed up by giving everyone the same additional $600 per week, regardless of whether they had been making $100 a week or $1,000 a week.

Now, the majority of unemployed workers are receiving higher unemployment benefits than their usual paychecks.

A JPMorgan Chase analysis estimated that between 65% and 75% of workers are receiving more from unemployment than their paychecks. And an analysis by professors at the University of Chicago estimated that the median unemployment benefit equals 134% of workers’ previous wages, while 1 in 5 workers is receiving 200% or more of previous earnings and 1 in 10  is receiving almost 300% of previous earnings.

That’s both inequitable and counterproductive to the economic recovery.

As the table below shows, someone in California who makes $36,000 per year—perhaps a nursing home or construction worker—would receive 53% more, or an extra $298 per week—by being unemployed as opposed to employed. (Note that individuals do not have to pay payroll taxes on unemployment benefits and a few states—including California—do not tax unemployment benefits.)

That’s hardly fair for the hardworking Americans who have continued to do their jobs each day.

And it’s not fair to unemployed workers to increase their risks of long-term unemployment.

In light of the unprecedented circumstances, it was appropriate for policymakers to temporarily increase unemployment benefits, but wrong for them to make unemployment pay more than employment.

Some policymakers who want to extend the expanded unemployment benefits until January or March of 2021 argue that it would be heartless to cut off bonus unemployment benefits on July 31.

But enticing workers with an extra $31,200 in unemployment benefits (potentially over $50,000 in total unemployment benefits) if they remain unemployed for a year could be far more damaging—both to individuals and to society.

Long-term unemployment results in lower incomes and fewer opportunities, as well as detrimental impacts on physical and emotional well-being.

Moreover, if Congress doesn’t fix this problem (by capping unemployment benefits at no more than 100% of workers’ wages) and instead extends excessive benefits, shortages of willing workers will contribute to more failures of small businesses.

Examples from around the country show that many small businesses are ready to open back up, but some workers don’t want to come back until their bonus $600 benefits expire.

Some lawmakers have suggested that those employers should just pay their workers more and raise their prices to cover the higher labor costs. But most small businesses are struggling just to stay afloat and wouldn’t be able to survive if they significantly increase prices. Those business failures would hurt both workers and their customers.

Take day care facilities, for example. Many parents will not be able to go back to work until day care centers reopen, but if providers raise prices enough to pay child care workers more than they are making on unemployment, families wouldn’t be able to afford child care.

Although larger businesses may be able to hang on in the short term, some likely will eliminate positions—disproportionately lower-skilled ones—to remain viable. That will exacerbate unemployment and leave workers with even fewer options.

And finally, while a massive public health pandemic such as COVID-19 warrants a federal government response, such measures must be targeted and directly aimed at combating the pandemic and enabling an economic recovery.

That’s not the case with the $600 benefit, which invites misuse and abuse. In some cases, it’s also unfairly redistributing and driving up costs.

In Portland, Oregon, for example, the school district and teachers union teamed up to devise a strategy—Friday furloughs—that will allow teachers to work less and earn more.

Instead of the usual $460 in daily district pay supported by Oregon taxpayers, Friday-furloughed teachers would receive an average $730 in unemployment benefits supported by federal taxpayers.

These excessive unemployment benefits hurt the nation’s recovery. And at an estimated cost of $279 billion through July alone—equal to $2,170 for every household in the United States—the House’s proposal to extend the benefit into 2021 would shift even greater costs onto ordinary Americans.

Americans are hard-wired for work. Beyond a paycheck, producing goods and services of value and interacting with others are fundamental to human flourishing.

Tens of millions of workers have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and most of them want to get back to work as soon as it’s safe to do so.

It’s time for Congress to focus on creating an environment that fosters employment opportunities instead of unemployment incentives.

This commentary has been modified since publication to specify the effect on larger businesses of the $600 extra unemployment benefit.

The post As Unemployment Keeps Rising, Congress Needs to Fix What It Broke appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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President Donald Trump met Thursday with national and Detroit-area African American leaders in Michigan to discuss how distressed communities can recover from COVID-19. 

Ja’Ron Smith, deputy assistant to Trump and deputy director of the Office of American Innovation, traveled with Trump to his Michigan meeting and explained what steps the commander-in-chief is taking to revitalize underserved communities’ economies.

Smith also explains how Trump is ensuring minority communities have access to the medical help they need during COVID-19. Listen to the interview with him on the podcast, or read a lightly edited transcript, pasted below.

We also cover these stories:

• Trump is withdrawing the U.S. from the Open Skies Treaty.
• Senate Democrats are denouncing the term “Chinese virus.”
• Actress Lori Loughlin, one of the most prominent parents involved in the college admissions scandal, will plead guilty.

The Daily Signal Podcast is available on Ricochet, Apple Podcasts, Pippa, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at letters@dailysignal.com. Enjoy the show!

Virginia Allen: I am joined by Ja’Ron Smith, deputy assistant to President [Donald] Trump and deputy director of the Office of American Innovation. Mr. Smith, thank you so much for being here.

Ja’Ron Smith: Thanks for having me.

Virginia Allen: Every community across America has been affected by COVID-19, but some have certainly been affected more than others, such as minority communities and underserved communities.

Now, on Thursday, President Trump met with national and Detroit-area leaders, African American leaders in Michigan to discuss how distressed communities can recover from COVID-19. Can you tell us a little bit more about the president’s priorities for that meeting?

Smith: Sure. So the meeting is a listening session to learn more about what’s working and what’s not working, insofar as resources that we’ve sent.

As you may know, through the CARES Act, we sent about $2 billion worth of health care resources to community health centers to help with testing and things like if an individual happens to contract the disease, … they can get the help they need to recover.

We’ve also done a number of different things for minority businesses through the form of [personal protective equipment] and carving out $30 billion for minority-owned depository institutions, as well as [Community Development Financial Institutions].

Allen: Wow, so encouraging to hear. And as you travel and as you talk with African American communities right now, what are some of their greatest concerns, and how is the White House responding specifically to those concerns that they’re raising?

Smith: COVID has put a spotlight on a lot of historic disparities that existed in the African American community, like issues of access to capital or health care disparities.

What we’re trying to do is put together infrastructure that will not only help minority communities or underserved communities like African Americans deal with those disparities now, but fix them for the future.

Last week, [Housing and Urban Development] Secretary [Ben] Carson made some recommendations to the president to help improve access to capital, as well as improve access to health care, and so we’re going to continue to work through that and partner with some of those leaders that we met in Detroit to create a lasting impact.

Virginia Allen: That’s so exciting. Now, as you mentioned, you’re trying to expand that access. Could you take a minute and just tell me a little bit more of what does that actually look like to expand that medical access during COVID-19 for African American communities?

Smith: Sure. I don’t want to get too far ahead of the president, but we hope to announce soon more details on what that may look like.

What I can tell you, what it looked like before is, through the CARES Act, we’ve allowed for individuals to get access to health care free of charge for COVID-related illnesses. And so that’s really been helpful for many communities.

We’ve also expanded access to telehealth resources so that individuals could use their connectivity online to get help from a health care provider.

As you can imagine, since so many areas aren’t surrounded by hospitals in underserved areas, … we’ve also created some partnerships with CVS and Walgreens to expand testing capacity.

What we’re looking at is seeing if we can take a look at expanding that connectivity so people who don’t have resources to connect can get access to those health care systems, and also looking at ways that we can maybe invest in more mobile health care services.

All of these things are being examined and we’re working with a number of different local leaders who have expertise in this area to learn what’s the best way to create outcomes.

Allen: That’s great. That’s exciting.

Now, we have seen that the African American community tragically has been more affected by COVID-19 in a negative way, but considering the work that the president is doing, that those in the White House are doing right now to connect those in minority communities, like you say, with the medical care that they need, whether that’s through telehealth or other means, are you optimistic that we’ll begin to see a decline in COVID-19 cases and deaths in those minority communities?

Smith: I’m optimistic that we can set up infrastructure to help deal with it. We also have to encourage, not only minority communities, but people in general not to have a fear of going to these health care systems.

Since COVID, what we’ve seen in some community health centers is a decline in attendance and taking advantage of some of the resources, and that doesn’t even speak to just COVID-related illnesses. It’s illnesses that maybe have some preexisting conditions, where they may, because of fear of going to the hospital, let those illnesses get worse.

So I think overall, we’re going to work with community leaders to encourage more people to access these health providers, and at the same time, create more access.

Allen: The president has tasked the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council to lead the way in making sure that underserved communities are getting that assistance that they need. Could you tell me a little bit more about the work of this council and who sits on it?

Smith: Sure. I should have led with that. The White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council was created in 2018 to help revitalize low-income and underserved areas throughout the country, and their chief tool was leveraging opportunity zones.

Since the beginning of the crisis on the pandemic, the president has renewed the focus of that council, and so we had infrastructure in place to deal with the holistic issues of the underserved communities. And we’ve used that infrastructure to implement many of the resources I just discussed through the CARES Act.

So, many of the agencies like—[the Department of Health and Human Services], the Department of Education, [the Department of Housing and Urban Development]—all sit on this council, including Treasury.

So we’ve hosted a number of different webinars and … had webinars with over a half a million African American leaders and Hispanic leaders to get ideas on how we can best create resources and partnerships to deal with COVID response.

That’s been the focus of the council on implementing some of the CARES resources, but as I mentioned last week, the council also made some recommendations to the president, and it included expanding access to capital, expanding on ways for health care resources, expanding ways for affordable housing and distance learning.

So we’re taking a whole-of-government approach, but we’re going to need a whole-of-America approach to deal with some of the realities of some of these communities around the country.

Allen: And you mentioned opportunity zones. Would you mind just first taking a second and explaining the important role that opportunity zones have been playing in America since they were created under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act? And then just explain what role the president does see them playing now as a tool to revitalize the economy.

Smith: Sure. Opportunity zones is a designation for low-income census tracts with high poverty and high unemployment. And that allows for individuals who have a capital gain to defer those capital gains.

And then the fact that they leave those capital gains in those low-income census tracts does make those opportunity zones, with the long term, they reduce the amount of capital gains tax they have to pay all the way down to zero if they keep the capital gain or the investment into that low-income census tract for 10 years.

Those tracts have shown some enormous success, and we hope to come up with a best practices report in the next month or so that could talk about all of the individual communities around the country.

They set up 100 different zones that have showed a lot of progress since the enactment of the law. What we’re hoping to see is how we can maybe further leverage that to bring more investment into these low-income census tracts. …

Since there’s a long-term incentive, we can certainly depend on using that in the future, in perpetuity, through COVID.

Allen: Yeah, that’s great.

Well, a top issue of the president has always been the economy, and that’s an issue that right now is so much so on everyone’s minds. And before COVID-19 hit, African American unemployment was at a record low. Are you confident that we’re going to be able to get back to that point once again?

Smith: Well, we certainly got the right man in charge. President Trump has done an excellent job of ushering in the economic boom. And if I had to put my money on anyone who can help get us back to prosperity, it would be President Trump.

We’re going to continue to push pro-growth ideas and deregulatory systems that would encourage more of the private sector to do what they do best and that’s create jobs and create outcomes for the American people.

Allen: Let’s talk just for a moment about how the president has prioritized helping historically black colleges and universities. President Trump signed legislation to provide HBCUs with over a billion dollars in stimulus funds. Why was this such a priority to the president and so critical for HBCUs to receive these funds right now?

Smith: Sure. President Trump realized that these institutions are an epicenter of the black community, and he wanted them to not only be able to flourish in the 21st-century economy, but continue to be a part of the American DNA.

So we’ve done work to make sure that they get permanent funding and they don’t have to go to Congress every year to ask for appropriations.

But even in the CARES Act, we were able to get a number of different resources to these institutions.

For one of the HBCU Digest periodicals that talk about HBCUs, they recently just talked about how that historic investment has led to saving one of the colleges, Bethune-Cookman. And so we’re continuing to make new investments into these institutions, and they’re going to be a key pillar into the work that we do to recover.

Allen: Absolutely. No, they certainly will be.

Obviously, one of the most basic needs that everyone has right now is food, and those in distressed communities are at a greater disadvantage to have that access to food, especially healthy food. But last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the launch of the Farmers to Families Food Box Program.

Could you take a second and just tell me a little bit about what that program is?

Smith: Sure. I don’t want to go into too many of the details, but essentially, to make it plain and simple, it’s creating more access to healthy food for low-income families.

It’s the idea that the Department of Agriculture has put into our budget the last couple of years, but through the pandemic and the need for food in some communities, we figured out a way to basically get food boxes delivered directly to people, so they don’t have to wait in these long lines.

Allen: Oh, that’s so exciting to hear. Well, Mr. Smith, you are in meetings and conversations with the president on a regular basis. You traveled with him to the meeting in Michigan. Is the president optimistic that we’re going to be able to turn this thing around and get back to a place of economic prosperity?

Smith: Yes, we’re very optimistic. And not only that, we’re willing to put the sweat equity and muscle it takes to make it happen.

This president has always been about results and outcomes. And you’re going to continue to see that through the rest of his presidency as we continue to flourish and rebound from this pandemic.

Allen: Is there one message that the president is really focused on Americans hearing and understanding right now?

Smith: We’re all focused on always making America the greatest country ever. And this return to greatness is going to usher in even more greatness, more than we’ve ever seen. And so I really have some confidence of that.

I’m also confident in the work ethic, and the fact that the American resilience is real and we’ll continue to partner with our local stakeholders around the country to make America a great country and a beacon of light for the rest of the world.

Allen: Well, Mr. Smith, we certainly thank you for the work that you’re doing right alongside the president. We are very thankful for your leadership during this time.

Smith: OK. Thanks so much for your time.

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