Publisher Simon & Schuster announced that the campaign memoir of former Vice President Kamala Harris, 107 Days, has sold 350,000 copies in one week. The sales total includes print, ebooks, and audiobooks. The numbers released by the publisher reflect that Harris’ book will be the top political book of 2025. The book goes into the details of Harris’ unexpected 107-day 2024 presidential campaign. The former Vice President became a famous nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race for The White House on July 21, 2024. Biden dropped out after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. Biden appeared confused and was slow to answer many questions and many attributed his issues to his age. Shortly before Biden’s withdrawal there was internal debate on whether there should be a hastily put together Democratic primary. But with only a short time left in the campaign before Election Day — Vice President Harris became the nominee. But the campaign was only 107 days because of Biden’s late timing in exiting the race. While there has been internal criticism within the Democratic Party pushing back against what Harris relays in her book, the strong interest and response by the public in the form of strong book sales and packed appearances is evidence of strong public interest. According to Simon & Schuster, the book has already been ordered for a 5th printing. A 5th printing of “107 Days” will bring the number of hardcover copies in print to 500,000. Harris’ book has a chance to be a historic best seller. Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming” is widely considered the most-read political memoir of all time. The 2018 book sold over 8 million copies globally and discussed issues of identity, race, ambition, family, and public service.
By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
The nation trembles, and the numbers do not lie. A new Quinnipiac University national poll reveals that 79 percent of voters believe the United States is in the grip of a political crisis, a judgment cast in the shadow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Across partisan lines, the consensus is chilling: 93 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of independents, and even 60 percent of Republicans agree the country is spiraling. “The Kirk assassination lays bare raw, bipartisan concerns about where the country is headed,” said Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy. Seventy-one percent of voters now call politically motivated violence a “very serious” problem, a sharp rise from just 54 percent in June. The voices of politicians, amplified and sharpened, are seen by 82 percent of respondents as feeding the violence that stalks the streets and corrodes the public square. A majority—58 percent—no longer believe the temperature of political rhetoric can be lowered. Instead, more than half of voters expect political violence to worsen in the coming years. Malloy captured the mood bluntly. “From a perceived assault on freedom of speech to the fragility of the democracy, a shudder of concern and pessimism rattles a broad swath of the electorate,” he insisted. Freedom of speech, once assumed inviolable, now carries the weight of doubt. Fifty-three percent of voters said they are pessimistic about its protection in America. Just six months ago, the numbers were reversed. The very machinery of democracy is also under suspicion. Fifty-three percent of voters say the system is not working. Democrats and independents share that belief by strong margins, while Republicans—mirroring their president’s claims—remain largely convinced it functions. President Donald Trump’s approval rating stands at 38 percent, with 54 percent disapproving. Disapproval is strong on nearly every front—foreign policy, the economy, immigration, and gun violence. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, fares little better: 54 percent of voters disapprove of his performance, and nearly six in ten say they have little or no confidence in the medical information he provides. The crisis extends beyond politics. Asked about the economy, 53 percent of voters pointed to the price of food and consumer goods as their greatest worry, while another 28 percent named housing costs. And when it comes to the fate of those convicted of murder, 55 percent favor life in prison without parole over the death penalty. Gun violence, foreign conflicts, and the direction of democracy itself weigh heavily. Eighty-three percent of voters believe political leaders are more interested in blaming others than finding solutions. The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,276 registered voters nationwide from September 18–21, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. “Nearly 80 percent of registered voters feel they are witnessing a political crisis, seven in ten say political violence is a very serious problem, and a majority say this discord won’t go away anytime soon,” Malloy noted.
By Sahil Kapur, Julie Tsirkin and Gabe Gutierrez, HBCU News
The U.S. government officially shut down at midnight on September 30, 2025, after Congress and the White House failed to reach an agreement on how to extend federal funding. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress, but it needs Democratic support to pass a bill in the Senate, where 60 votes are required. And the two parties failed to craft a bipartisan bill, with the Senate rejecting both a GOP proposal and a Democratic proposal just hours before the shutdown deadline. It’s the first government shutdown since 2018, in Trump’s first term, which was the longest ever at 34 days, lasting into early 2019. There is no clear path to a resolution, with the two sides fundamentally at odds over how to resolve the impasse. Federal employees will go without pay for the duration of a shutdown, while members of Congress and Trump will still receive their salaries. About 750,000 employees will be furloughed each day, the Congressional Budget Office said, while others who work essential jobs, like Transportation Security Administration agents, air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement officers and members of the military, will be forced to work without pay. Under federal law, they are all scheduled to receive back pay once the government reopens, even for the time some didn’t work. Compensation for furloughed workers will cost taxpayers $400 million, according to the CBO. National parks will remain partially open during the shutdown. Medicare and Social Security benefits are unchanged, as they aren’t subject to the annual funding process, though new applicants could face delays due to workers’ being on furlough. Trump, meanwhile, suggested Tuesday he could fire “many” federal employees in a shutdown. The clash comes after months of political warfare between the two parties, with Democrats demanding provisions to extend health care funding — most notably Obamacare subsidies set to expire and raise people’s premiums at the end of this year. They also sought assurances that Trump won’t keep unilaterally withholding spending directed by Congress. GOP leaders declined to haggle over a short-term bill to prevent a shutdown temporarily, offering a proposal that would keep the government open at current spending levels until Nov. 21. They said they’ll negotiate spending policy only through the regular federal funding process. Democratic leaders said that’s not enough, vowing to oppose any bill that failed to include their priorities. The West Wing has seemed to relish the coming battle, believing Democrats will shoulder the blame and eventually cave in. A White House official said it’ll be hard for Democrats to defend why they’re not agreeing to a “clean” funding bill to keep the government open. A second White House official noted that Trump held two health care-related events Tuesday, related to drug prices and pediatric cancer. Still, three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted for the Republican bill Tuesday night: John Fetterman, D-Pa., Angus King, I-Maine, and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. That means they’ll need at least five more Democrats to pass it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., suggested that more Democrats could support the GOP bill once the pain of a shutdown begins. “The cracks in the Democrats are already showing,” Thune told reporters. “There are Democrats who are very unhappy with the situation. … Tonight was evidence that there is some movement there.” Thune has said he won’t negotiate policy with Democrats while they take the government “hostage,” an analogy he has made repeatedly in recent days. But the Senate’s top Democrat vowed to hold firm against a bill that lacks Democratic input. “Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown — rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America’s health care worst of all,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “They’ve got to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to come to a bill that both parties can support.” The next steps could be dictated by the court of public opinion, as each party believes the other will take more of the blame for a shutdown. A New York Times survey released Tuesday found that 26% would blame Trump and the GOP, while 19% would blame Democrats, 33% said they’d blame both equally, and 21% more were undecided. A Marist University poll found that 38% would blame Republicans, 27% would blame Democrats, and 31% would blame both equally. The shutdown came after a White House meeting Monday between Trump and leaders of both parties, the first time Trump had discussed the issue with the minority leaders, Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. The meeting yielded no breakthroughs and even led to a new round of partisan sniping, which Trump initiated hours later by posting an insulting artificial intelligence-generated video of the two Democrats. The next morning, Jeffries called Trump a coward. “Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video. When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face,” he said Tuesday on the Capitol steps. “Say it to my face.” The second White House official dismissed any criticism of the video. “It was funny,” the official said, adding that despite the backlash, it had the intended effect: Many news channels replayed it, making the Democrats look foolish. The bitter fighting and the lack of any further bipartisan talks foreshadowed the shutdown. White House budget director Russell Vought issued a memo hours before the midnight deadline saying agency heads should “execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.” “It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict. Regardless, employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities,” Vought said in his memo. Less than an hour later, the Senate adjourned, calling it a night with no solution. It will return Wednesday, but with no clear plan to break the impasse. Thune said he hopes Democratic lawmakers will take a stand against their leadership. “I just think they’re under so much pressure from the left in the country,” Thune told NBC News. “But I do think that they have rank-and-file members who really want to be in a different position than the one they’re in right now.” It is unclear when the government will reopen. Republicans feel compelled to defend Trump’s policies that the opposition party is seeking to undo, like his Medicaid cuts. And Democrats face pressure from their base to take a more aggressive posture against second-term Trump, who they say is behaving like an autocrat. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that he expected the shutdown to last until at least next week. “I don’t think anything’s going to happen until the House gets back,” he said, predicting Democrats would soften. “Then people can sit down and find a way to get it done.”
Since the unfortunate assassination in Utah of Charlie Kirk, leader of Turning Point USA, a right-wing youth organization, there has been a great deal of attention focused on the detriment of political violence in our nation. We agree with the many political leaders who have condemned the direct political violence of shooting a youth leader, who was using his free speech rights on a college campus to express right-wing nationalistic and sometimes racist points of view. No one in America should condone this type of direct political violence from anyone across the political spectrum, from the extreme right to the extreme left. President Trump has attempted to blame the problem of political violence in America on “left wing radical lunatics”, without evidence and without reference to the political right in this country, which has a much clearer record of political violence with guns – study January 6, the Buffalo supermarket shooting, many attacks on schools, synagogues and other houses of worship. Upon reflection on the killing of Charlie Kirk, I came to the revelation of the political violence of Trump-Vance’s policy choices, as a factor in the continuing violence against vulnerable people in our society. And a continuing factor in how we stop and deescalate political violence going forward. Is there not a degree of political violence, when you cut off a family’s food stamps and leave them hungry; or cut off people’s health care when they are sick and may die; or end the LIHEAP program which provides heating assistance in the cold of winter to pay utility bills; or cutting Title I educational programs and school lunches to help our children learn more and better; or cutting off USAID assistance to hungry and diseased people around the world. All of these are actions that the Trump-Vance Administration celebrates. There is evidence that people will die – political violence – based on the policies of the President, Vice-President and their enablers and supporters. Will those pollical assassinations of poor families, homeless people, hungry people, sick people, get as much attention and condemnation as the killing of Charlie Kirk. As one who has called for the citizens arrest of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey for “mass murder” because she refused to extend Medicaid services to 250,000 working people in our state, I am using my free speech rights to call attention to her failing. These families are in a coverage, because they do not make enough money to pay for their health insurance premiums on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace and are going without needed and critical health care services. National studies by health care experts have calculated that 300 to 500 hundred people each year have died in the decade from 2014 until today, because the state government of Alabama has not expanded Medicaid. In the decade since these funds have been available – 3,000 to 5,000 in our state have died; that is mass murder to me! The Trump-Vance Budget Reconciliation bill will reduce Medicare/Medicaid spending by 20% and deprive millions of their healthcare. This is not justice. This is political violence by policies! We must resist this and fight these dangerous, anti-humane, violent policies, non-violently, but with determined social action and mobilization in the streets, civil disobedience, voting and every other peaceable, proactive, productive and creative means we have available to us.
The 2025 Airing of the Quilts Festival is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 4, in the Gee’s Bend community of Wilcox County. The event is free with a recommended contribution of $40 to support the Gee’s Bend quilt-making community. Photo courtesy of the Airing of the Quilts Festival
The 2025 Airing of the Quilts Festival—set for Saturday, October 4, in the Gee’s Bend community of Wilcox County—promises to spotlight the area’s world-renowned quiltmakers while also celebrating the community’s cultural significance.
Now in its fourth year, the 2025 Airing of the Quilts Festival added global sportswear brand Adidas as its presenting partner for an event that honors the living history of Gee’s Bend from the area’s origins to its significant role in the American Civil Rights Movement and its current fame as one of America’s most renowned artist communities.
“The festival gives visitors the opportunity to meet quilters, learn about the area’s history, and become immersed in the area’s incredible cultural significance,” said Kim V. Kelly, executive director of the Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy.
The festival, which was named to Garden & Gun magazine’s 2025 Bucket List, drew 2,100 people to Gee’s Bend in 2024, and organizers expect at least 2,500 visitors this year.
Gee’s Bend quilters have garnered international fame for their unique quilt- making, and the festival honors the community’s history of quilt-making with interactive programming, food trucks, entertainment and live musical performances. Visitors to the Airing of the Quilts also take part in quilting demonstrations and storytelling from the descendants of generations of Gee’s Bend quilters.
This year’s festival features the unveiling of an exhibition dedicated to Dinah Miller (née Jenkins), who was kidnapped in Africa and brought to Alabama in 1860 aboard the last known slave ship to enter U.S. waters, the Clotilda. The exhibit is titled “Between History and Memory: Dinah Miller’s Legacy in Gee’s Bend.”
Miller settled in Gee’s Bend in 1890 and is the earliest known quilter in the area. Her descendants rank among the area’s most renowned quilters.
“This new exhibition will clearly celebrate Dinah’s life, tell her unique and inspirational story, and honor her immense contributions to the Gee’s Bend community,” Kelly said.
On October 2, during the week before the festival, Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy will also debut its newly designed quilt workshop/learning space and posthumously dedicate the facility to the Reverend Lonnie Brown Jr., a community advocate who passed away earlier this year. The facility was built thanks to funding from The Daniel Foundation of Alabama and a grant from the Alabama State Council of the Arts.
The new workshop space will be open for use and tours during the festival. “This facility will give visitors an opportunity to sit down and learn about them, learn about their history and get an intimate lesson in their artistry throughout the year, not just during the festival,” Kelly said. The Airing of the Quilts Festival is hosted by organizing sponsors Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy, Sew Gee’s Bend Heritage Builders, and Souls Grown Deep. This festival is open to the public.
The event is free with a recommended contribution of $40 to support the Gee’s Bend quilt-making community. For the second straight year, the festival will offer a hop-on/hop-off bus service for $25 that will visit the homes of Gee’s Bend quilters, as well as the festival.
The Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy is an associate member of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and Alabama State Association of Cooperatives. The Freedom Quilting, a women’s handicraft workers cooperative, was a founding member of both groups. The Federation helped nurture and support the Freedom Quilting Bee for many years and continues to support the Legacy project.
On Friday, September 19, 2025, over 400 revelers attended a gala honoring Felecia Lucky for 21 years as the founding CEO/President of the Black Belt Community Foundation.
The BBCF board announced in June, 2025 that Felecia Lucky would be stepping down from her role, effective September 30, 2025. The September 19 gala, held at the Renaissance Hotel & Spa in Montgomery, AL, overflowed with tributes to Ms. Lucky from Community Associates representing the 12 counties served by BBCF, as well as from other sponsors and supporters. She has been a visionary leader and a tireless champion for the Black Belt, securing more than $100 million in support of community generated projects. The BBCF board has selected Christopher Spencer to assume the lead role of the Foundation. Photo shows Felecia Lucky acknowledging past and present BBCF board members at the gala.
Africville, a community founded by Black people in Nova Scotia, Canada, finally received recognition decades after the government destroyed it. In 2010, the mayor of Halifax issued a formal apology for the destruction of Africville, acknowledging the injustices faced by its residents. In 2024, Africville was designated as Canada’s first UNESCO Place of History and Memory linked to enslavement and the slave trade, highlighting its importance in Canadian history. The Africville Museum now serves to commemorate the community’s legacy and educate future generations about its history and the ongoing struggle for racial equality in Canada.
Africville remains a powerful symbol of resilience and the fight against racism, representing the broader narrative of Black history in Canada. The community has become an important symbol of Black Canadian identity, as an example of the “urban renewal” trend of the 1960s that razed similarly racialized neighborhoods across Canada, and the struggle against racism. Africville was founded in 1848 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Black refugees who arrived during and after the War of 1812. They were formerly enslaved African Americans who escaped from the United States and were resettled in Nova Scotia by the British. The town was founded along the southern shore of Bedford Basin. But they were not welcome. During the 20th century, Halifax neglected the community, failing to provide basic infrastructure and services such as roads, water, and sewerage. Africville residents, however, paid taxes. At the same time, Halifax continued to use the area as a prison, mental health facility, and an industrial waste site. The residents of Africville struggled with poverty and poor health conditions as a result, and the community’s buildings deteriorated. During the late 1960s, the City of Halifax condemned the area, relocating its residents to newer housing to facilitate the development of the nearby A. Murray MacKay Bridge, related highway construction, and the Port of Halifax facilities at Fairview Cove to the west. The residents’ belongings were loaded into garbage trucks and hauled to their destination. Soon after this, former residents and activists began a long protest on the site against their treatment and the destruction. In 1996, the site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada, representative of Black Canadian settlements in the province, and an enduring symbol of the need for vigilance in defense of their communities and institutions. After decades of protests, the government agreed to compensate descendants and their families who had been evicted from the area. In addition, an Africville Heritage Trust was established to design a museum and build a replica of the community church.
Congresspersons Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures of Alabama
By Lauren Burke, NNPA Congressional Correspondent
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus were split on the question of whether Charlie Kirk, a rightwing commentator with controversial views on race, should be honored by a lengthy Republican-penned resolution in his honor. The final vote tells part of the story. All Republicans who voted, 215, voted in favor of the Kirk Resolution (with four missing the vote) along with 95 Democrats. Fifty-eight Democrats voted against the Kirk Resolution and 38 members, all Democrats, voted “present.” The most interesting tally of the vote one the Kirk Resolution was the number of members of the U.S. House who “missed” the vote: 26. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus who voted in favor of honoring Charlie Kirk were Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-BY), Reps. Don Davis (D-NC), Greg Meeks (D-NY) and David Scott (D-NY). Two members of the CBC didn’t vote: Reps. Marc Veasey (D-TX) and Joe Neguse (D-CO). All other Black Caucus members voted “NO” on the Kirk resolution or “present.” Members of the Congressional Black Caucus were split on the question of whether Charlie Kirk, a rightwing commentator with controversial views on race, should be honored by a lengthy Republican-penned resolution in his honor. Leadership pressured several members of Congress to “take a walk” rather than vote NO to honoring Kirk. All three members of the Democratic leadership, Leader Jeffries, Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark, and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Pete Aguilar, voted YES on the Kirk Resolution. Despite Kirk’s murder at 31, which was captured on a shocking video widely shared on social media, many elected officials and political observers have noted Kirk’s many controversial statements over the years. Kirk was shot as he spoke on the first stop of a college tour at Orem, Utah Valley University. Kirk’s violent public murder has prompted Republicans to leverage his death into a way to punish anyone critical of Kirk or who spoke out about the irony of his death, given his pro-second amendment public statements. A website has been set up by his supporters listing anyone who has made any statement of controversy that Kirk supporters deem problematic. The Republican-written Kirk Resolution included statements against political violence. “How you die does not redeem how you lived. I do not celebrate anyone’s murder. Charlie Kirk did not deserve to be murdered. But I’m overwhelmed to see the nation’s flag fly and half-staff for a man who was a proud racist who spent his entire life sowing seeds of division and hatred into this land,” said Pastor Dr. Howard-John Wesley during his Sunday sermon at Alfred Street Baptist Church on Sept. 14. Wesley’s sermon has gone viral on social media with millions of views. “We must condemn violence without abandoning our right to speak out against ideas that are inconsistent with our values as Americans. We strongly disagree with many of the beliefs Charlie Kirk promoted: including his belief that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended racial segregation, was a mistake; his denial that systemic racism exists; his promotion of the Great Replacement theory; and his offensive claims about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Michelle Obama, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee lacking adequate cognitive ability,” wrote the Congressional Black Caucus in their official statement released after the vote on Sept. 19. Kirk made negative statements about Ivy League graduates U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Jackson, journalist Joy Reid, the late Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee, and former First Lady Michelle Obama, implying that all of the Harvard Law, Harvard College, and Princeton graduates were successful because of affirmative action. In relation to the criticism of the accomplished Black women, Kirk said on his show in July 2023 that, “Black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.” “The resolution introduced in the House to honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy is not about healing, lowering the temperature of our political discourse, or even ensuring the safety of members of Congress, staff, and Capitol personnel. It is, unfortunately, an attempt to legitimize Kirk’s worldview — a worldview that includes ideas many Americans find racist, harmful, and fundamentally un-American,” The Congressional Black Caucus statement further stated. In a moment when Republicans remain against any prohibitions on assault weapons or any other firearms. One of Kirk’s most notable phrases has been posted by many on social media. “Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty… We need to be very clear that you’re not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. But I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment,” Kirk once said.
The autopsy for Trey Reed is underway. The 21-year-old student at Delta State University was found dead hanging from a tree on the campus. There are questions about whether it was foul play or suicide. The state’s report will be completed in 24 hours. However, Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump confirms the parents of Reed will perform an independent autopsy in Mississippi after the current procedure is complete. It has yet to be determined if the family will use someone from Mississippi or outside of the state to perform the independent postmortem examination. Delta State’s initial contact with the family about Reed’s death was that he was found dead in his dorm room. Reed’s grandfather contradicts the information, saying the family found the truth from social media that he was dead, hanging from a tree. Crump is on the ground in Mississippi, working in collaboration with civil rights groups, including the Equal Justice Initiative, NAACP, and Southern Poverty Law Center, “trying to get to the truth,” as he confirms, “the rumors are rampant.” Compounding the issue, another man, 36-year-old Corey Zukatis, was found hanging from a tree in a wooded area in Vicksburg, Mississippi, near a casino. The family of Zukatis confirms he was homeless at the time of his hanging death. Both cases are under investigation. Democratic Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, is calling for a full federal investigation following the hanging deaths of two black men in Mississippi, long considered the most racist state in the nation. Brian Fair, Interim President and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), is also calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to the deaths, saying, “the tremendous outcry from the local community over concerns surrounding the loss of these two should not go unaddressed.” Fair also says the optics “of these two deaths immediately evokes the collective consciousness of those who are deeply aware of Mississippi’s troubled past. These events remind us how inequity continues to endanger lives.” According to the Equal Justice Initiative, Lynching in America documents more than 4400 racial terror lynchings in the United States during the period between Reconstruction and World War II. Also, according to their website, EJI researchers documented 4075 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950.
On March 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law. The federal law says any act where someone conspires to commit a hate crime that results in death, serious bodily injury, or significant harm can be prosecuted as a federal crime. The law carries up to 30 years in prison plus fines. The question now is, will this Trump administration recognize and/or utilize this law if there is a lynching conviction in these cases?
Hypertension In Older Age. Young Female Medical Worker Measuring Arterial Blood Pressure Of Senior Black Man Using Cuff, Patient Having Problems With Tension, Sitting At Table. Health Care Concept
By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
The air in Washington has grown thick with a familiar tension, the kind that precedes the shuttering of government offices and the silencing of paychecks for thousands of workers. Yet at the heart of this looming shutdown lies something far greater than partisan brinkmanship: a ferocious fight for the soul of America’s healthcare. Democrats have planted themselves firmly in the path of what they call a reckless assault on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. They are not speaking in the language of compromise this time. They are speaking in the cadence of survival—for the poor, the sick, the disabled, and the working families who stand to see their coverage ripped away. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned of what was at stake. “Senators will have to choose: to stand with Donald Trump and keep the same lousy status quo and cause the Trump healthcare shutdown, or stand with the American people, protect their healthcare, and keep the government functioning,” he said. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries framed the fight with defiance. “We don’t work for Donald Trump, we don’t work for JD Vance, we don’t work for Elon Musk, we work for the American people. And that is why we are a hard no on the partisan Republican spending bill because it continues to gut the healthcare of everyday Americans,” he stated. In their joint letter to President Trump, Schumer and Jeffries accused him of deliberately courting a shutdown to “gut the healthcare of the American people.” They wrote, “We do not understand why you prefer to shut down the government rather than protect the healthcare and quality of life of the American people,” they stated. Journalist Karen Tumulty analyzed the Democrats’ approach, noting that the minority party, though constrained in power, is wielding rare leverage in this moment. They have tied their stand to demands that strike at the heart of Trump’s agenda: restoring Medicaid funds slashed earlier this year, extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire, and halting the administration’s freeze on appropriated dollars. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland cut to the essence of Democratic resistance. “I’m not going to write a blank check for a lawless president. That is my starting point here,” he said. The stakes, Democrats argue, are not abstract. They warn that millions could see premiums soar, hospitals and clinics could close, and the poorest communities—urban and rural alike—could be left without care. In Delaware, Sen. Chris Coons described how both the most urban and most rural hospitals in his state depend heavily on Medicaid. “Part of our challenge is lots of people haven’t felt that yet, but they will next month,” he said. The president has brushed aside these warnings, saying there may be “a closed country for a period of time,” even as he pledged to shield the military and Social Security checks, he stated. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker made clear where he stands. “I’m on Team Fight. You don’t think Republicans would use every ounce of leverage they would have in this circumstance?” he said. For Democrats, the fight is not just about numbers on a spreadsheet, but about what kind of nation America chooses to be. They are wagering that voters, when confronted with rising costs and shuttered care, will see the struggle not as political theater but as a line drawn in defense of their health and their dignity.
