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TheRev. Al Sharptonhas decided not to endorse in the hotly contested 2021 NYC mayoral primary race, but just two days before the June 22 election hes criticizingfrontrunner Maya Wileys diversity record.

When Wiley left the de Blasio administration in 2016 where she served as both Hizzoners counsel and the citys Minority/Women Owned Business Enterprise (WMBE) director less than 5percent of public spending went to those firms even though they account for 30 percent of Big Apple-based companies.

During her two years at City Hall, the portion of total WMBE procurement for the city actually dropped from 5.3 to 4.9 percent, according to the city comptrollers office.

"Ive not reviewed the contracts but much of our work at NAN is aroundeconomic equity and fighting to get MWBE contracts up, not down," Sharpton told The Post about his National Action Network civil rights group.

NYC'S GREENWICH VILLAGE TAKEN OVER BY CRIME, ANARCHY

City Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo, who is supporting Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams for mayor, had harsher words for Wileys inability to boost the bucks to minority businesses during her tenure.

"That is a disgrace. Black and brown New Yorkers need economic opportunity, not empty rhetoric," Cumbo said.

Robert L. Greene, head of the National Association of Investment Companies, questioned whether Wiley, a civil rights attorney, is a true progressive given the lack of minority contracting progress under her leadership.

"It is difficult to predict what any candidate will do when they are in office," Greene told The Post.

The Rev. Al Sharpton has decided not to endorse in the hotly contested 2021 NYC mayoral primary race, but just two days before the June 22 election hes criticizing frontrunner Maya Wileys diversity record.

"However the two best indicators seem to be track record and what are the priorities of their biggest supporters. The fundamental question is what did you do when you had an opportunity to lead?

"Unfortunately very little has been done in NYC to more broadly engage with minority business. Despite a progressive agenda the facts are that minority business enterprise (MBE) utilization rates have remained flat, leaving many minority contractors out of getting full and fair consideration.

"I hope the voters in this years NYC mayoral race understand that and elect a mayor that will provide broader opportunities for those that continue to be left behind," Greene said.

And while the MWBE work is in the past, opponents point to her current backing by the 1199 SEIU health care union as evidence that her lack of focus on boosting minority businesses will continue if shes elected mayor.

Greene said less than 2% of the unions $20 billion pension fund is with diverse asset managers.

A recent New York Post poll found Wileyin second placejust behind Adams in the hotly-contested Democratic primary race.

Other critics have attacked Wileysprogressive bona fides. The former NAACP attorney has put her own children in selective and private schools while advocating for a desegregated education system, her exclusive Prospect Park South, Brooklyn neighborhood has private security while she presses to defund the NYPD and shes raked in six-figure salaries as a career "activist."

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Wiley spokeswoman Julia Savel said, A rep for Wiley said, "As head of the MWBE program, Maya Wiley brought together every New York City agency and took New York from $500 million in contracts to $1.6 billion in just two years an unprecedented jump that reflects her deep commitments to creating a New York that lifts up every community.".

To read more from the New York Post, click here.

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Al Sharpton and other black leaders attack Maya Wileys diversity record - Fox News

I think that Vice President Harris herself personifies the need for voting rights to be extended, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who attended the speech in Tulsa, said in an interview. When shes on the phone or walks into an office, were looking at the reason we need voting rights.

Michael Waldman, the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, said that the decision to elevate Ms. Harris as the face of the administrations work on the issue was a pivotal moment for the Biden White House given the number of voter suppression efforts that were moving forward 389 bills in 48 states and counting, according to a tracker maintained the Brennan Center.

It has been decades since a Democratic White House has made voting rights and democracy reform a central goal, Mr. Waldman said, but he added, the clock is ticking.

Ms. Harriss impact on the hand-to-hand politics of the Senate is expected to be limited, but she often drew attention to voting rights during her four years as a senator. During her last year in the Senate, Ms. Harris introduced legislation that would expand election security measures, require each state to have early in-person voting periods and allow for an expansion of mail-in absentee ballots.

In 2020, Ms. Harris was also a co-sponsor of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore a piece of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that relied on a formula to identify states with a history of discrimination and require that those jurisdictions clear any changes to their voting processes with the federal government. The protections were eliminated by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Still, Ms. Harris, who spent a chunk of her time in the Senate running for president, was not known for building especially close relationships with colleagues, and Mr. Manchin and Ms. Sinema are no exceptions.

Several Democratic aides who work closely with the senators scoffed on Wednesday at the idea that Ms. Harris, known as a staunch liberal, would be the one to persuade either moderate lawmaker to change the filibuster rule. Nor is Ms. Harris a likely candidate to broker the kind of compromise on the substance of the bill needed to persuade Mr. Manchin, the only Democrat who has not sponsored it, to back it.

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VP Kamala Harris Asked to Lead on Voting Rights, and It's a Challenge - The New York Times

Nearly one month ago, racial tensions threatened to tear apart an exceedingly rare and productive bipartisan relationship in Congress, a partnership making progress on one of the thorniest political issues of our time: police reform.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in Congress, declared that America is not a racist country, although he added that it still has work to do on improving race relations and curbing police profiling and brutality.

The backlash from many corners of the black community against Scott, who made the statement in a televised rebuttal to President Joe Bidens address to a joint session of Congress, was fierce. The term Uncle Tim went viral on Twitter for nearly 12 hours before the social media platform stopped allowing it to appear in its trending section. The Rev. Al Sharpton countered that the practice of America was built on racism.

Before that firestorm, Scott was reporting new progress on a reform bill after more than 10 months of stalemate. And the two-term senator praised the work of his Democratic partners, Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 presidential primary candidate and former mayor of Newark, N.J., credited for decreasing crime and turning the city around, along with Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat and a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Could the cross-party partnership survive the new wave of vitriol directed at Scott after his remarks countering the liberal argument of systemic racism?

Apparently so, because the same trio of lawmakers on Monday issued a joint statement citing renewed momentum in forging a compromise police-reform bill. Scott, Booker and Bass timed the statement to mark Tuesdays one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, sparking months of protests, many of which became violent, in cities across the country.

One year ago, George Floyds murder awakened millions of people around the world who had never before witnessed the deadly consequences of the failures in our policing system, the lawmakers said. While we are still working through our differences on key issues, we continue to make progress toward a compromise and remain optimistic about the prospects of achieving that goal.

If a bipartisan bill is truly within reach, its passage would take pressure off President Biden, who in his joint address promised to help push a measure over the finish line before the Floyd anniversary, only to back off that goal once it became clear Congress wouldnt make the deadline.

The White House has since kept a lighter touch, arguing that it is allowing lawmakers the space to work through the issues, a position White House press secretary Jen Psaki repeated Monday.

[Biden] is encouraged that there is ongoing progress and that there is a sense from negotiators that theres a path forward, and he believes he can continue to press on that, Psaki told reporters during her daily briefing.

Instead of a Rose Garden signing ceremony on a reform bill, Biden will host the Floyd family at the White House Tuesday for a private meeting.

Meanwhile, Bass, Booker and Scott are working through their differences. Chief among them is crafting a compromise on the issue that became the main roadblock to progress last year: whether to lift qualified immunity protection for police officers in civil lawsuits. Scott in early April told RealClearPolitics that he is willing to forge some middle ground, but more recently signaled he will not agree to total elimination of the legal protection.

The bipartisan trio reportedly has met in person three times over the last week in sessions that included the chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus Reps. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, and Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican.

Last summer, Scott spearheaded a reform measure after an emotional speech on the Senate floor in which he talked about his own unsettling encounters with law enforcement, including one year in which police stopped him seven times. That effort broke down when Senate Democrats led a legislative filibuster to block the bill, with many of them stating that their top problem was that it didnt include an overhaul of qualified immunity protections.

The bipartisan measure lawmakers are hashing out right now would overhaul several policing practices and modify qualified immunity, although they have yet to say exactly how. It would bar racial profiling at every level of law enforcement while trying to stop no-knock warrants and choke-holds by preventing police departments that dont adhere to the standards from receiving federal aid.

The bill would also create a national police misconduct registry so that officers who are fired for such violations could not easily move on to another police department.

But the negotiations arent taking place in a vacuum. It could be difficult to win over the 10 Senate Republicans necessary for the bills passage, especially with new reports of skyrocketing crime in some big cities amid continued high levels of pandemic-produced unemployment. After seeing a 36% increase in murders, Los Angeles, for instance, is set to reverse its $150 million cuts to the departments budget made last year amid calls from the left to defund the police. The infusion of cash will allow the police department to hire 250 more officers.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' White House/national political correspondent.

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OPINION | Bipartisan police reform in reach on Floyd anniversary - The Livingston Parish News

It was another busy week in New York politics as the end of session in Albany draws ever closer, as does the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. In what has likely got all city Board of Elections employees breathing a sigh of relief, the state board has finally given the official thumbs up to software that will tabulate ranked-choice voting results. This week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced yet another new incentive for people to get vaccinated, this time offering up full scholarships to public colleges to a lucky few teens. And he announced that the long-awaited East Side Access project will open to passengers next year. Keep reading for the rest of this weeks news.

In a major decision for New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that public schools in the city will be 100% open in the fall with no remote option. Currently, although schools have been open for in-person learning, the city has allowed students to continue learning remotely if they or their parents had concerns about returning to the classroom with the pandemic ongoing. But with vaccines getting approved for younger teens and children and consistently low positivity rates, de Blasio said that kids need to return to the classroom if the city wants to begin achieving a full recovery. But many parents, particularly parents of color, have long expressed wariness at the prospect of sending their kids back to the classroom, even if they dont like remote learning options. Asked about the prospect at the state level, Gov. Andrew Cuomo indicated that there will be a uniform approach to school reopenings and said the state is on track to have all schools fully reopened by the fall. He didnt say whether removing the remote option, as New Jersey recently announced as well, is something he is considering.

Although most eyes are on the Democratic primary for the New York City mayoral race, a heated race for the Republican nomination is also underway. And candidates Curtis Sliwa founder of the Guardian Angels and Fernando Mateo a restaurateur and bodega-owner advocate participated in their first debate of the race. Despite agreeing on many issues, including that crime is the most pressing issue facing the city and committing to refunding the police, the debate devolved into a shouting match of personal insults with props. Mateo attacked Sliwa, who leads in the only polling done in the race so far, as a liar and a comedian, and even mentioned Sliwas many rescue cats. Sliwa went after Mateo for his past support of Democratic candidates.

The state Senate moved on several pieces of legislation, at least partially driven by recent scandals surrounding the governor, to further strengthen the states sexual harassment laws and to reform the government ethics agency the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE. Asked about the reforms to the commission he helped establish several years ago, Cuomo called JCOPE meaningless and that reform would be ineffective without a constitutional amendment, which has also been proposed in the Legislature. Meanwhile, a much anticipated bill that would allow gig workers to unionize effectively died before arrival as most stakeholders came out in opposition to the proposal before it was even introduced.

Diane Morales campaign for mayor of New York City was rocked with internal turmoil the past week that led to her missing a candidate forum hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton and to several members of her team resigning or getting fired. Her campaign manager and senior policy adviser both departed the campaign after Morales allegedly failed to address claims of racism, harassment and employee abuse. Morales has said that two of those fired were staffers who were at the root of the complaints, but another four were leaders in the effort to unionize campaign staff. Although several have called on Morales to suspend her campaign, and even to drop out of the race entirely, she said she has no intention of doing either as she downplayed the strife. Members of her campaign staff are still looking to unionize, and attention on their efforts has increased significantly since news of trouble in the Morales camp first broke.

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Back to school in NYC and GOP mayoral candidates duke it out - City & State

The Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday argued that "the practice of America was built on racism," while addressing GOP Sen. Tim ScottTimothy (Tim) Eugene ScottUpdating the aging infrastructure in Historically Black Colleges and Universities McConnell amid Trump criticism: 'I'm looking forward, not backward' Theinstructive popularity of Biden's 'New Deal' for the middle class MORE's (S.C.) claim last week that "America is not a racist country."

Sharptonwas speakingat the funeral of Andrew Brown Jr., who was shot by deputies in Elizabeth City, N.C., last month.

I watched, the other night, the president make his first address to the joint session of Congress," Sharpton said. "And then I watched the rebuttal by the senator from South Carolina. Seems something awkward to me, where a white president talked about white supremacy and a Black senator said ... America is not racist. Seemed a little strange to me."

Now, everybody in America is not racist. But are you talking about whether the practice of America's racist, or the people, cause the practice of America was built on racism, the civil right activist added.

Brown was shot while driving away fromPasquotank County Sheriff's deputies who were serving an arrest warrant for felony drug charges, according topolice. His fatal shooting by police happened shortly after the trial of a Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering another Black man, George Floyd, last year. Floyd's deathprompted widespread protests over police violence and racism.

Sharpton gave an impassioned address atBrown'sfuneral, joining in the calls for the body camera footage of the shooting to be publicly released. He attacked the reasoning that has been given by the Pasquotank County Sheriff's office and a North Carolina judge who said publicly releasing the footage would endanger a fair trial.

I know a con game when I see it. Release the whole tape, and let the folks see what happened to Andrew Brown, Sharpton said. How is a tape gonna prejudice a grand jury, when a grand jury got to see the tape in order to decide whether or not they will prosecute? Don't talk to us like we're stupid!

If theres nothing on the tape, there won't be nothing on it in 45 days and if theres something on it in 45 days, there's something on it today, Sharpton continued. You don't need time to get a tape out, cut it out.

Sharpton acknowledged Brown's criminal history, but statedthe fatal shooting was done "unjustifiably and illegally."

"And when you break the law, you've got to be held accountable to the law. Andrew Brown Jr., if he did wrong, bringhim to court. But you don't have a right to bring him to his funeral," Sharpton said.

Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump also spoke at the funeral, repeating his own calls for the body camera footage to be released.

"Andrew cannot make the plea for transparency. It is up to us to make the plea for transparency and demand that these videotapes be released," Crump said. "We know that it was a reckless, unjustifiable shooting."

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Sharpton responds to Tim Scott: 'The practice of America was built on racism' | TheHill - The Hill