Weekly Recap: May 11th - May 17th
Weekly Recap: May 11th - May 17th
A recap of the big political stories affecting the United States this past week.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardoned a convicted killer on Thursday. Daniel Perry had spent months writing social media posts and texts about how he wanted to shoot protesters. On the night of July 25, 2020, Perry was working as an Uber driver when he came to an intersection near a Black Lives Matter protest. Perry drove through a red light and into a crowd of protesters who scattered out of the way. A group approached the car, including Garrett Foster, who legally had an AK-47. Witnesses say Foster never aimed the weapon at Perry. Perry rolled down his window, shot Foster 5 times with a handgun, and drove away.
When a jury convicted Perry of murder, immediately afterward, Governor Abbott said he was looking into a pardon. Abbott believed that Perry was standing his ground despite being the one who created the situation and having never had a weapon aimed at him. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles not only recommended a pardon but also that Perry should have his firearms rights restored.
President Biden ordered all of the military aid for Israel to be shipped over with the exception of 500 lb and 2000 lb bombs due to concerns about how those would be used in the city of Rafah, which contains 1 million civilians. Despite all of the other aid being released, Republicans continued to push the narrative that Biden was turning his back on Israel and even brought forward a measure in the House designed to force Biden to send the remaining bombs.
On the other side of the war, construction of the floating pier to Gaza was completed and anchored to the beach. Humanitarian aid will soon be shipped to the pier, where pallets will be loaded onto trucks, which will drive down the pier to an area of the beach that has been secured by Israeli forces. There, the trucks will unload the supplies and immediately return to the ships. No US forces will step foot in Gaza to ensure that America does not get pulled into the war.
While other methods of getting aid into Gaza are less expensive, there have been ongoing issues with various humanitarian aid deliveries. Getting as much aid into Gaza is important as all 2.3 Palestinians are facing acute hunger, and as many as 1 million are facing starvation. Even with this additional aid, there will be complications on how to distribute the aid to those who need it in the war-torn region still active with ongoing fighting.
Numerous Republican members of Congress made trips to Trump’s New York election interference trial throughout the week. Some of the politicians were there to improve their chances of becoming Trump’s Vice Presidential candidate pick. All of them were there to act as surrogates for Trump in front of the cameras, saying what Trump couldn’t say due to his gag order.
While this parade of Republicans further politicized the trial, the larger criticism is how it caused a halt to work within the House of Representatives.
These work absences and the trial itself brought increased tension to Congress, which boiled over during an Oversight Committee hearing. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene verbally attacked Representative Jasmine Crockett’s appearance. This caused back-and-forths among several members, including Crocket, Greene, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Anna Paulina Luna, while Chairman James Comer failed to keep control of the hearing.
A report revealed that Justice Samuel Alito had an upside American Flag hanging outside his home just days after the January 6 insurrection. The upside down flag had been used during that time as a symbol for the “Stop the Steal” movement. Stop the Steal was the false claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump, when, in fact, Trump had attempted to steal the election win from President Biden through several schemes culminating in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Alito responded to the report by claiming his wife had hung the flag upside down due to a heated argument with one of their neighbors.
This comes at a time when the nation’s approval rating of the Supreme Court is only 40%, and numerous ethical issues have surfaced involving different Justices of the Court.