DNC/RNC Give 'Blessing' For Black Lives Matter Town Hall Event

Matt Vespa | October 23, 2015 9:40 PM

The Democratic and Republican National Committees aren’t going to change their debate schedules to accommodate an additional one centered on racial justice by Black Lives Matter, according to the Washington Post. The publication added that while the leaderships of both parties aren’t changing anything, they did offer their support for a town hall event to address their questions. The RNC also encouraged their candidates to reach out to as many voters as possible. Yet, that doesn’t mean BLM is giving up:

In an interview on Wednesday, Black Lives Matter organizer Elle Hearns said the umbrella group had yet to decide if it would proceed with an attempt to host a town hall, and said that she was still personally disappointed that the DNC will not sanction an additional debate.

"Their response to our request is unsatisfactory,' Hearns said, and added that it is irresponsible for the Democratic National Committee to host so few debates. "Debbie Wasserman Schultz should be more mindful of her responsibility not only to the DNC, but to the American people."

Mckesson, however, said he has been in talks with DNC and RNC officials to coordinate a presidential town hall including all of the candidates of both major parties.

[…]

In an interview on Wednesday, Mckesson said he hopes to secure commitments from all current presidential candidates — both Democrats and Republicans — and that he has begun reaching out to potential venues and corporate partners. Mckesson said he has reached out to contacts at Twitter, the social network on which he is one of the most prominent users, to gauge their interest in co-hosting the town hall.

"We want to bring together all of the candidates, not focused on either political party, to have a conversation centered on race and criminal justice," Mckesson said.

I’m all about having discussions with the other side, but there’s a good chance that this event could devolve into chaos. We saw this at Bernie Sanders’ August rally in Seattle, and at July’s progressive Netroots Nation conference, where Black Lives Matter activists rushed the stage featuring presidential candidates Sanders and former Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley. Also, how could there be any conversation when you have folks from this movement chanting, "pigs in a blanket, fry em' like bacon"? That being said, Republican and Democratic candidates probably should duck their heads into this event if it does materialize, but they should know how things are probably going to turn out. On the other hand, maybe this could be a venue where both parties could have a substantive discussion about criminal justice reform, which has bipartisan support. We’ll see, but I admit the latter is more in pie-in-the-sky territory.