Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) schooled Trump on why the census matters after the president tantrumed over his citizenship question being ruled unconstitutional.
Trump tweeted:
Can you believe that the Radical Left Democrats want to do our new and very important Census Report without the all important Citizenship Question. Report would be meaningless and a waste of the $Billions (ridiculous) that it costs to put together!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2019
Rep. Schiff replied:
Doing what the Constitution requires and counting every person is not “meaningless” and it is surely not a “waste.”
Including a citizenship question will only suppress participation and, inevitably, result in inaccurate data. But, of course, that’s exactly why you want to do it. https://t.co/qJtQTO7ov3
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 1, 2019
Trump is lying about the need for a census citizenship question
Kristen Clarke the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, the group that beat Trump in court, explained why Trump’s tweet is false:
This is FALSE
A citizenship question hasn’t appeared on the Census in more than 6 decades
It was added after push by Steve Bannon and Kris Kobach
It’s intended to discourage participation among people of color
It was found unconstitutional by a judge in our court challenge pic.twitter.com/WlZwfFdT7B
— Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) April 1, 2019
Trump is trying to weaponize the census against migrants and people of color.
The census determines the number of seats each state gets in the House through a process called Congressional Apportionment. States with more immigrants and persons of color do or are projected to swing more Democratic in the future. If Trump can use the census to keep those people from being counted, it will serve as a national House gerrymander for a decade.
The one overarching theme of the Trump presidency is that it is the dying gasp of white conservative America in their effort to stem the tide of demographic progress.
That’s the real and very ugly reason that Trump wants a citizenship question included in the 2020 census.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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