In today’s Monday Night Brief: President Trump’s re-election campaign off to a rocky start before it even starts, The U.S. North Korean conflict escalates and Harvard rescinds a prominent activist for comments he’s made in his past.
Kyle Kashuv
Today Kyle Kashuv, a survivor of the Parkland School shooting and prominent advocate for conceal carry announced on Twitter that he has lost his admission to Harvard. The announcement comes in a thread explaining what happened a month after it had surfaced that he had used racial slurs in private conversations.
He explained that Harvard had explained to him that they reserve the right to rescind admissions and that he was given a chance to tell his side of the story. After a lengthy response to the inquiry it was explained to him that the committee had decided to drop him as a student.
This sparked outrage from prominent conservative voices like Ben Shapiro.
“Regardless of what you think of @KyleKashuv — and for the record, I think he, like many other Parkland survivors, has handled the public limelight with grace and strength — Harvard’s auto-da-fe sets up an insane, cruel standard no one can possibly meet.”
Honestly, he’s right.
Listen, I absolutely believe that there should be consequences for people who commit dangerous acts when they’re young. Brock Turner got off with a slap on the wrist for raping someone at a party he attended in which multiple people saw him. Any school shooter should be prosecuted like an adult and tried for their crimes.
However, compared to these horrible acts, being provocative and saying racial slurs in private conversation are peanuts. It insinuates that no one is capable of changing and developing a better world perspective while also atoning (which he has) for mistake made in the past.
Even Harvard’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion accepted his apology and explanation of his actions, urging him to continue to research ways he could better himself. They also stated they looked forward to meeting with him when he would start his semester.
I think it’s ridiculous that a person’s past can be weaponized against them. Both sides do this, we saw it a few years ago when – for whatever reason – conservative activists found tweets from Marvel Director James Gunn’s past and got him fired because of it. Frankly, it’s childish and the only time it’s truly appropriate to use this is when the person denies ever doing it or their words actually incite violence.
This continues the dangerous precedent of holding everyone over the fire everything they could have possibly done. Sooner or later there needs to be a time for people to allow others to grow instead of throwing mistakes in their face. Until the cycle is broken then nobody is safe and anything is fair game – which is wrong.
As for what will happen next for Kashuv, we’ll see. I hope that through all of this, he continues to grow and learn from the consequences of his actions. As stated in the headline, I don’t think he deserved to lose his admission into Harvard, what he said was horrible, but it was two years ago right before one of the worst events of his life.
Honestly, who among us can say we’re perfect?
Trump fires Pollsters
Yesterday it was reported by CNN that President Trump had fired several pollsters after it was shown that he was losing in 17 key states against other democratic candidates. The polls were released and covered weeks ago, however the president has been angry at the coverage it’s been getting and
This comes only a day before his re-election campaign was set to begin tomorrow with a rally in Florida. The President has also been facing criticism for a revealing interview he had with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in which he admitted he would take opposition research – and aid in a national election – from a foreign agency if offered.
What I can’t wrap my head around is why he decided to fire these pollsters weeks after the research had become public. Why didn’t he do it when the information was still fresh, he would have caused more of a stir up then, but it wouldn’t have been prolonged. This is because with all of the chaos going on around him, media would have quickly shifted focus to something else after a few days.
Besides that, we should have learned from the 2016 election that polls aren’t always correct so firing these people for doing their jobs seems like the wrong approach. Polls are always changing; currently former Vice President Joe Biden is leading in a ton of polls but a lot of the media coverage is going to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Who knows what the landscape will look like in a few months?
Of course CNN also reported that the firings had less to do with the accuracy of the polls than it did with trying to make the president happy. This is even more ridiculous and can have potential of hurting the president more in the long run because it will further paint him as a baby.
Either way you slice it, it’s another bad week for our president.
XI Jingping to visit North Korea ahead of President Trump
It’s been reported by the New York Times that President Xi Jingping will make a state visit to North Korea before President Trump. The Visit comes as President Trump has been working to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Kimg Jong-Un.
China has been a pivotal ally to North Korea, spanning all the way back to the Korean War. However, President Jingping has been more reserved until recently with his support for North Korea. A move like this will no doubt complicate relations with the United States while they work to ensure peace with Kim Jong-Un.
There really isn’t much to add to this story as it’s been reported. I think while this could complicate things for President Trump, I don’t believe there will be any new ground made between the United States and China and the progress made will no doubt be broken by either us or them. It’s been speculated that Xi Jingping’s visit is to actually assist the United States in coming to a new peace agreement and I hope it is because this would give the Trump administration a reason to ease off of the trade war and give relief to the industries deeply affected by it.
Until then, we really will just have to wait and see what happens over the course the week.
That’s it for tonight’s briefing. As always if I missed anything or you would like to talk about something discussed please feel free to leave a comment below! Until then, have a great rest of your week.
