AFRICAN AMERICANS/CELEBS/CRIME/LABOR/LEGISLATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump on Thursday [6-13-19] took another turn advertising his administration’s work on criminal justice, one of the only bipartisan achievements he can campaign on and an issue he hopes will win over at least some African-American and centrist white voters. Mr. Trump praised the First Step Act, as the law is known, as one of his major accomplishments. It was the third time he has commemorated it at the White House, where he also announced new government initiatives intended to encourage businesses to hire former inmates. He said that the Bureau of Prisons would work with employers to have jobs lined up for inmates upon their release, and that the Labor Department was awarding $2 million to states to support fidelity bonds, which help underwrite companies that hire former prisoners. The president singled out Kim Kardashian West, the reality television star who has become a high-profile advocate for reducing criminal sentences, who sat in the audience sandwiched between his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for pushing the administration to tackle the subject.”
–Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman, “The Subject at the White House Was Criminal Justice.The Subtext Was the Election.,” The New York Times online, June 13, 2019