President Joe Biden’s positions in recent weeks have put him at odds with young activists and some Democrats.
Rep. Maxwell Frost says Biden broke his promise to young voters by approving oil drilling in Alaska.
“We deserve a future worth living,” tweeted the youngest congressman.
President Joe Biden’s positions in recent weeks have put him at odds with young activists and members of his party, including the first Gen Z member of Congress.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, 26, says he’s “very disappointed” in Biden for approving it 8 billion dollars ConocoPhillips Willow Oil Project in Alaska, one of the largest drilling projects ever on federal land. The move broke Biden’s campaign promise to halt new oil drilling on state. Florida rep says it breaks Biden’s commitment to young voters
“Young voter turnout was at its highest in 2020 and young people supported him over commitments like ‘no more drilling on state,'” Frost tweeted Tuesday night. “That commitment has been broken. We deserve a future worth living.”
Biden made a “dangerous decision” before 2024 by siding with the fossil fuel industry instead of standing by his own goals and listening to the millions of young people who have carried his party over the past three cycles, Michele Weindling said, Election manager for the youth climate protection group Sunrise Movement.
“We understand the threat posed by the GOP, but we also need a vision and a commitment to the values we hold dear that will improve our lives,” she told Insider.
Young voters played a key role in Biden’s 2020 victory those aged 18 to 24 years at that time vote for him more than any other age group. After the 2022 midterm elections, Biden thanked young people for voting historical figures as they did two years earlier, acknowledging in a Post-election news conferencee that “they voted to continue addressing the climate crisis, gun violence, their personal rights and freedoms, and student debt relief.”
Biden also specifically referenced his call to congratulate Frost on his election victory, adding that he told Frost, “If he’s president and they say, ‘Joe Biden is out in the field office,’ I don’t want him to say, ‘Joe WHO?'”
In November, Frost praised Biden in an interview with CNN, saying, “He wasn’t afraid to come up with bold, transformative ideas and policies, and that’s what really excites young voters.” of climate change contains.
But on Tuesday night, Frost retweeted a statement from the activist group Gen-Z for Change, a group invited to the White House for the Inflation Reduction Act ceremony, who now say they are “deeply upset” by the Willow Project’s decision.
“There is no deeper form of betrayal than to watch a president who has claimed to value the voices of youth and respect indigenous sovereignty openly disregard one of the biggest and clearest movements of our generation,” the statement said Explanation.
Home Secretary Deb Haaland, in a video on Monday, called the Willow project a “difficult and complex problem that has been inherited” because it involves existing leases that previous governments have dated back to the 1990s. “We had limited decision-making power,” she said, noting that what was approved was “substantially smaller” than ConocoPhillips originally proposed.
A Biden aide, responding to a media narrative that Biden held different positions and had not previously had disagreements with progressives, said the administration had “the best relationship with the left and with the progressive community of any time in modern history.”
“Together, we have achieved long-delayed progressive goals on climate, Medicare and more,” the advisor said in a statement. “Meanwhile, there have been disagreements on specific issues, but unremitting unity on the overall agenda. Look at the party-wide endorsement of the President’s budget vision over the past week, the left’s positive response to the State of the Union, and leading progressives echoing all sorts of other Democrats who give President Biden the best midterms for a Attribute to new Democratic President for 60 years.
Recent Biden moves draw fire from progressives
Progressives have supported many parts of Biden’s agenda but allow his decisions this month on the Willow project and Congress to overturn a DC crime law has drawn harsh criticism.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York called the DC decision “very upsetting” because the district penal code is “antiquated” and Congress should “allow DC to conduct its own business”. Biden said at the time he supported DC’s statehood and self-government, but opposed some changes to its criminal code, such as lowering penalties for carjacking.
Bowman told Insider earlier this month that Biden’s decision on DC’s crime bill would have no impact on his baseline support in 2024 “on balance” because Biden is likely to run with no Democratic opposition and “it’s more likely that progressive activists will support Biden.” will vote on the Republican challenger.”
If you are contacted after the Willow project decision, which Bowman disagreed, he said, his thinking hasn’t changed. But he added that he is “very concerned about young people staying at home in 2024. We need them.”
Sunrise Movement’s Weindling said she’s not sure what the impact of the 2024 Alaska drilling decision might be. But she said it makes the work of activists more difficult in trying to get the Democrats elected because young people are more mobilized to vote if they believe there are candidates. ready to fight for us.”
“I think it’s important that President Biden recognizes this as a mistake for our generation and takes the necessary steps over the next year and a half to prove to us that he’s serious about fighting for us,” she said. “President Biden has a responsibility to honor the commitments he made to us when we helped get him elected and then saved the Democratic Party in 2022.”
Republican candidates who have so far declared their 2024 candidacy include former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Biden has not yet declared his candidacy, but is expected to do so soon.
Trump’s strategy is to outflank Republicans and neutralize Biden on economic-populist issues, and Biden needs to push back on that front, said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
“With so much at stake in 2024, this is a really bad time for Biden to be perceived as soft on oil companies — or bankers who have looted their own bank in free fall,” he said. Reference to a CNBC report of Silicon Valley Bank employees received bonuses before regulators seized the failed bank. “It would be a political advantage to crack down on the bankers, oil execs, pharma execs and other despicable actors at this moment.”
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