Embattled Democrat Gets Boost With Appearance on Colbert’s Show
Jamaal Bowman faces tough primary opponent
A progressive congressman facing a tough fight to hold onto his seat got a bit of a national boost when late-night TV host Stephen Colbert had him as a guest Wednesday.
Rep Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), currently serving in his second term, has drawn a primary challenger in the form of the much more conservative white Democrat, Westchester County Executive George Lattimer.
With Bowman taking a much more skeptical stance towards Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Lattimer has attracted a number of high-profile endorsements, including former secretary of state — and one-time Democratic presidential nominee — Hillary Clinton.
So it was notable that Colbert chose to inject himself in that intramural Democratic battle by bringing Bowman on his program.
The funny man did not mince words, and waded right into the toughest issues facing Bowman, particularly his position on the violence in Gaza and the fact that some public opinion polling has him as far as 17 percentage points behind Lattimer with just days before voters in New York’s 16th Congressional District go to the polls in this primary election.
Colbert also referred to Bowman’s background as a public school administrator in asking the congressman about Republican objections about schools teaching the value of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“You’re the former principal here. One of the biggest fights going on, sort of culture fights going on in the United States right now is some school districts, generally controlled by Republican legislatures, have outlawed the teaching of what they call or consider Critical Race Theory, but rarely is, lessons on diversity, equity, inclusion,” Colbert said. “As somebody who used to head a school, what’s your response to that? What are the values? What is the value of keeping that in the schools?”
“First of all, the Republicans are bullies, man,” Bowman replied, to cheering and applause from the studio audience. “They’re trying to bully the entire country into one singular a way of thinking. And our strength is our diversity as a nation.
“In fact, that we come from different countries, have different backgrounds, have different experiences. We need to learn more about each other because that’s how you bring the country together and people together,” he added, to further sustained cheering and applause. “And so we have to do everything in our power to push back against banning of books, taking over of school districts, fighting back against DEI.
“We’re not going to be our most aspirational selves as a nation unless we embrace diversity. So that’s what we have to do.”
Please support our work…
Please subscribe…