The Big Story
BREAKING—YANG SAYS HE’LL MEET WITH DISGRACED COMEDIAN GILLIS: “Saturday Night Live” has fired new cast member Shane Gillis after videos of the disgraced comedian using racist and homophobic comments—often targeting Asian Americans—resurfaced in recent days and sparked calls for a boycott in the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. But Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who said previously that Gillis should keep his job, tweets tonight that he expects to sit down with Gillis “soon.” Here’s the latest…
- What happened: Celebrations over the promotion of SNL writer Bowen Yang, who last week became the first Chinese American and third Asian cast member in the show’s history, were quickly overshadowed by outrage after reporter Seth Simons tweeted video clips of Gillis in 2018 calling people of Chinese descent “chinks.” In separate interviews uncovered by Vulture’s Megh Wright, Gillis also used mock Chinese accents and remarked that “you can be racist to Asians. That’s what we’re finding out.”
- “After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” an NBC spokesperson said on Monday. “We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”
- The political reaction: The AAPI Victory Fund, one of the hosts of last week’s groundbreaking Asian American presidential forum, pushed for the Democratic National Committee to drop consideration of NBC as a media partner for future primary debates. Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Massachusetts) campaign manager Roger Lau called the situation “absolutely f’ed.”
- The biggest voice to weigh in was Andrew Yang, whom Gillis had called a “Jew chink.” Yang left many stunned after tweeting that he would be “happy to sit down” with Gillis, adding that “I do not think he should lose his job. We would benefit from being more forgiving rather than punitive.” In an interview on Sunday with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Yang added that while “I’ve experienced a lot of anti-Asian racism throughout my upbringing and it hurts,” the Gillis controversy was a case of a “comedian whose words should be taken in a slightly different light.”
- Yang’s response spurred a deluge of blistering criticism from AAPI activists in recent days and appeared to put him at a crossroads with many over his own problematic reinforcement of the model minority stereotypes. 18 Million Rising’s Taz Ahmed accused Yang of undoing “years of hard progress of the Asian American movement,” community organizer Aree Worawongwasu tweeted that “Yang has no place excusing racist jokes and slurs employed specifically at Chinatown workers, much less presenting himself as a representative of All Asian Americans,” while Reappropriate’s Jenn Fang declared on Twitter: “We, at the very least, deserve an AsAm candidate who has the current pulse of AsAm identity politics.”
- What’s next: Yang says that he will sit down with Gillis after the comedian reached out following his firing this evening. Meanwhile, read this piece by Washington Post’s Amy Wang, as well as this op-ed from Alton Wang.
On the Agenda
SEN. PAN’S VACCINE BILLS SPRINT TO THE FINISH LINE: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a pair of measures authored by State Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) into law. The ugly debate over the bills, which tighten medical exemptions for children’s vaccines and ignited raucous protests in the state capital, was marked by racist tweets by anti-vaxxers and a physical assault on Pan in August. Read more.
CENSUS UNDERCOUNT THREATENS FUNDING, PA AAPI COMMISSION SAYS: Roughly 40% of Pennsylvania’s AAPI community is at risk of going uncounted in the 2020 Census, according to the state’s advisory commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs—putting funding for hospitals, schools and community organizations in jeopardy. Read more.
ORANGE COUNTY VIET-AMERICAN COUNCIL MAJORITY IN TURMOIL: Westminster’s City Council, which became the nation’s first with a Vietnamese American majority, has been paralyzed for months by verbal brawls and infighting, the Los Angeles Times reports—spurring recall campaigns against all five council members. Read more.
LEANA WEN, PLANNED PARENTHOOD SPAR OVER EXIT PACKAGE: Leana Wen, who was ousted as Planned Parenthood president in July, accuses the group of withholding her health benefits and departure payout as “ransom” to pressure her to sign a confidentiality agreement, the New York Times reports. Planned Parenthood denies the claims. Read more.
MAKING MOVES: Kimberly Yam, the editor of HuffPost’s Asian Voices vertical, says she will join NBC News next month. Read more.
VANDERBILT STUDENT JOURNAL DELETES OP-ED QUESTIONING CHINESE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: An op-ed in the student-run Vanderbilt Political Review titled “What Do We Gain from Allowing Chinese Espionage” has been removed following a firestorm of criticism from the university’s Asian American community. The piece, which called for a halt in the “wholesale import” of Chinese nationals into U.S. educational institutions, was “undoubtedly discriminatory and derogatory,” the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Chinese Association’s Viola Zhou tells the Vanderbilt Hustler. Read more.
NURSING HOME CLOSURE HITS SEATTLE’S JAPANESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY: The decision to shutter Seattle’s oldest and largest Asian American senior care facility last May has set off discussions on how to care for the city’s rapidly aging Japanese population, the Seattle Times reports. Read more.
THE LONG READ—HOW A NATIVE HAWAIIAN FAMILY IS STANDING UP FOR ITS ANCESTRAL LANDS: HuffPost’s Megan Kaleipumehana Cabral and Marie Eriel Hobro document the housing and land rights struggle underway in Hawaii. Read more.
2020 Watch
2020 DEMS GAMBLE WITH ASIAN AMERICAN ENGAGEMENT: Several Democratic candidates are ramping up their efforts to court AAPI voters and hiring staff dedicated to Asian American outreach, National Journal’s Mini Racker writes. Read more.
- Notable: Axios reports that Amit Jani is joining the Biden campaign as AAPI national vote director, while surrogates director and Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan campaigned for the former vice president in the battleground state of Nevada last week.
- Meanwhile… Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) announced the launch of her South Asians For The People initiative in a Facebook video earlier this month, while Andrew Yang, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), and billionaire Tom Steyer faced Asian American voters at AAPI Victory Fund’s presidential forum in California.
NAKASEC ACTIVISTS PUSH FOR ACTION ON DACA AT DEM DEBATE: Four Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients with the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium interrupted Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate in Houston, citing their disappointment with the lack of conversation about the Obama-era program. Read more.
PARALYZED FEC UNLIKELY TO STOP YANG’S $120K GIVEAWAY: The absence of a quorum at the Federal Election Commission—which no longer has enough commissioners to hold meetings, impose penalties, or open new investigations following the departure of Vice Chairman Matthew Petersen—means that Democratic candidate Andrew Yang’s “Freedom Dividend Pilot Program” is unlikely to see federal pushback, POLITICO notes. Read more.
- A bit of news: Yang’s press team tells The Yappie that the campaign raised $1 million and collected more than 450,000 email addresses following the $120,000 contest announcement at the September debate.
ELIZABETH HENG AD TARGETING AOC DRAWS BACKLASH: A provocative ad featuring an image of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) bursting into flames was produced by the New Faces GOP, a Republican political action committee founded by former congressional candidate Elizabeth Heng, Roll Call reports. The spot also includes photos from the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. Read more.
POLL—BIDEN, SANDERS, WARREN FAVORED BY AAPI VOTERS: Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) are favored as frontrunners by AAPI voters, according to an August survey sponsored by AAPI Victory Fund. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang is seen as the candidate who best understands AAPI issues but trails eight points behind Biden, Sanders, and Warren. Read more.
- The poll also shows that disapproval for President Donald Trump has strengthened, NBC News’ Shirley Wang writes: “On immigration policies, respondents feel relatively neutral about the decline in H1B visas allocated for tech workers and the increasing difficulty in obtaining student visas. With regard to issues abroad, respondents feel disappointed by Trump’s approach to relations with North Korea and how he is protecting the Pacific Islands from global warming.” Read more.
GOP EYES REBOUND IN ORANGE COUNTY: A new survey conducted by TargetPoint Consulting for the Congressional Leadership Fund shows Michelle Steel (CA-48), one of three Asian American Republican women running in California, tied with first-term Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda (D), RealClearPolitics reports. Read more.
- Also… Spectrum News profiles California GOP Vice Chair Peter Kuo, who hopes “his identity as an Asian American immigrant will help engage minorities that have increasingly broken away from the party’s national image.” Read more.
The Trump Era
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FACES FRESH LAWSUIT OVER CITIZENSHIP DATA COLLECTION: Immigration advocacy groups are suing to block the Trump administration from collecting citizenship data for redistricting purposes, alleging that the government is seeking to implement “an unconstitutional and racially discriminatory scheme intended to deprive Latinos and non-citizens of equal representation.”
- The details: Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) filed a 32-page complaint in federal court in Maryland on Friday, marking the first major legal challenge to President Trump’s executive order on citizenship data that was issued after a trio of judges blocked the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. The suit names Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham as defendants.
- Why it matters: Advancing Justice | AAJC claims that the use of citizen-only data to apportion congressional seats or to draw legislative districting plans will primarily harm AAPI voters who live in immigrant communities. “It’s an unconscionable abuse of power for discriminatory purposes, and we intend to stop it,” the organization’s president and executive director John C. Yang says. Read more from NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang here.
SCOTUS HANDS TRUMP TEMPORARY VICTORY ON ASYLUM RULE: The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with enforcement of new asylum restrictions, which bar migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border from seeking asylum if they have not first applied in another country they traveled through. Read more.
AAPI GROUPS FILE AMICUS BRIEFS ON PUBLIC CHARGE: Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund have filed a slew of amicus briefs opposing the Trump administration’s controversial “public charge” rule, which is slated to go into effect in October. The rule would restrict admission for anyone who is “more likely than not” to use government welfare and has high stakes for Asian immigrant communities. Read more.
VISA REVOCATIONS PUT DENT IN U.S. HIGHER ED’S IMAGE ABROAD: The detainment of nine Chinese undergraduate students at Arizona State University and the deportation of one Palestinian Harvard freshman could deal another blow to American higher education’s image abroad, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. Read more.
- Context: The high-profile incidents come just days after the Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule that would allow immigration officials to collect social media information from foreign travelers.
TRUMP, AAPI REPS TO PARTICIPATE IN TX EVENT WITH INDIA’S MODI: President Trump will participate in an event with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston on Sept. 22, the White House says. The rally hosted by Texas India Forum, called “Howdy, Modi! Shared Dreams, Bright Futures,” is expected to draw tens of thousands of Indian American community members. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois), and Ami Bera (D-California) are among some 60 lawmakers who will be present. Read more.
On the Hill
BREAKING—HOUSE PANEL LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO SEC. CHAO: The House Oversight Committee is probing whether Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao used her office to benefit herself and her family’s shipping company, according to a letter from the committee signed by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois). Read more.
HK ACTIVIST JOSHUA WONG HEADS TO CAPITOL HILL: As widespread protests in Hong Kong continue with no end in sight, Demosistō Secretary-General Joshua Wong is set to testify before Congress this week in support of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
- Demonstrators in Hong Kong have called on Congress to move quickly on the bipartisan proposal, which was reintroduced back in June by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Ben Cardin (D-Maryland). As we noted last week, the act would impose various penalties on individuals found to be curtailing Hong Kong’s freedoms and require annual certification of Hong Kong’s autonomy to justify special trade privileges. 18 Million Rising and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop became the latest AAPI organizations to back the bill in an open letter on Sept. 8.
- Wong, who will appear as a witness at a Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday, tells The Yappie that the protesters in Hong Kong “need support and allies around the world” amid the political crisis, and that the international community must move to safeguard the city from a “new Tiananmen massacre.” It remains unclear whether Wong will meet with administration officials or congressional leaders during his D.C. visit, though he will make an appearance at a Georgetown Center for Asian Law event on Wednesday.
- Meanwhile, Sen. Rubio tells The Atlantic that he expects the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act to easily pass Congress, and that “the White House has indicated that [President Trump] would sign it.”
HIRONO, DUCKWORTH ASK COMMERCE IG TO PROBE REPORTS OF NOAA RETALIATION: In a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Inspector General Peggy Gustafson, Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) demanded answers on whether Commerce officials “have suppressed or altered—or are actively suppressing or altering—scientific products or communications” issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Read more.
ICYMI—HASAN MINHAJ TESTIFIES AT STUDENT LOANS HEARING: Comedian Hasan Minhaj, host of the Netflix show “Patriot Act,” joined consumer advocates and experts last week in testifying on the widening student debt crisis before the House Financial Services Committee. Read more.
Representation Roundup
Notable activity from AAPI members of Congress (Sept. 9–15):
- The Senate advanced Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-Illinois) Veterans Expedited TSA Screening Safe Travel Act by unanimous consent. Read more.
- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) sent a letter to the Justice Department’s Inspector General urging him to investigate the basis of the DOJ’s antitrust investigation into four California automakers. Read more.
- Sen. Mazie Hirono introduced the SFC Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act of 2019, which would allow service members to sue the government for military medical malpractice. Read more.
- Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) joined with members of the Congressional Tri-Caucus to file an amicus brief in support of several cases challenging the Trump administration’s public charge rule. Read more.
- Rep. T.J. Cox (D-California) questioned the chief of the Bureau of Land Management over the Department of Interior’s plans to decentralize the public land agency. Read more.
- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) joined colleagues to introduce the School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act, H.R. 4301. Read more.
- Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) introduced the Immigrant Witness and Victim Protection Act, which removes barriers for undocumented victims who could be eligible for protections under the Violence Against Women Act. Read more.
- Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) reintroduced the No PAC Act, which would bar members of Congress and congressional candidates from accepting most political action committee contributions. Read more.
- Rep. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) joined colleagues in introducing the Protect Our Military Children Act, H.R. 4295, a bill that will require the Department of Defense to carry out PFAS testing of children living at military facilities. Read more.
- Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) invited CDC Director Robert Redfield to testify before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy amid an “outbreak of lung illnesses associated with using e-cigarette products.” Read more.
- Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) announced the reintroduction of the ENCRYPT Act, which would create a national standard for encryption technology. Read more.
- The House voted 295–114 to pass Rep. Doris Matsui’s (D-California) Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, H.R.1768. The bill would reauthorize the EPA’s program offering grants and rebates to states and localities to move away or upgrade diesel engine vehicles. Read more.
- Rep. Grace Meng (D-New York) secured several provisions related to gun safety and U.S. international aid programs in the latest FY2020 spending bills. Read more.
- Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) joined colleagues in sending a letter warning a court-appointed receiver for a defunct for-profit college chain not to collect on debts owed by former students. Read more.
- Rep. Mark Takano (D-California) sent a letter to ICE Acting Director Matthew Albence raising concerns about conditions and procedures at the Adelanto ICE detention center, the largest immigrant detention facility in California. Read more.
- Del. Michael San Nicolas (D-Guam) introduced the Tax Refund Responsibility Act, H.R. 4262, which would require the government of Guam to expedite the processing and payment of tax refunds. Read more.
- Del. Gregorio Sablan (I-CNMI) joined colleagues in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce Inspector General requesting a federal investigation into the Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund, which is connected to commercial tuna fishermen in Hawaii and three U.S. Pacific island territories. Read more.
- Del. Aumua Amata (R-American Samoa) became a co-sponsor of H.J. Res. 65, a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would restore congressional authority “to protect the flag from acts of physical desecration.” Read more.
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