Biden Admin Scraps Menthol Cigarette Ban Amid Fear Of ‘Angering’ Black Voters
President Joe Biden’s administration is delaying its potential plan to ban menthol cigarettes after concerns about the political implications ahead of the 2024 election.
The administration planned to announce Friday that it will delay its decision on the rule, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ. While the administration plans to argue that it needs to consult more outside groups on the implications of the rule, there is no current timeline to revisit the issue, the sources told the WSJ.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Xavier Becerra confirmed the news in a statement Friday afternoon, saying the potential ban “will take significantly more time.”
The WSJ noted that the potential decision comes after the White House weighed the health impacts versus the political implications of “angering” Black voters before the 2024 election.
While the Biden administration was weighing the rule, GOP strategists and retired law enforcement professionals previously told the Daily Caller that moving forward with such a decision could hurt Biden politically. The experts told the Daily Caller that the ban could cost the president a number of black Americans’ votes. Once the ban was first suggested in April 2022, it polled as widely unpopular in several swing states, including Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada.
“Black voters overwhelmingly backed Joe Biden in 2020, but polls show they aren’t nearly as excited to back him in 2024,” a national Republican strategist told the Daily Caller. “The data shows menthol cigarettes are overwhelmingly preferred by Black smokers, so some may perceive this ban as an unfair attack on them. At a time when polls show Biden is in an incredibly tight race, I’m surprised he would risk upsetting such a key constituency by banning menthol cigarettes.”
The Biden administration was previously expected to announce its plans moving forward for the ban in December 2023, though three administration officials told the Washington Post that the rule be delayed because of the “pressure during an election year.”
“This would be devastating,” David Margolius, director of public health for Cleveland, previously told the Washington Post about the potential delay in the ban.
AUTHOR
REAGAN REESE
White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.
RELATED ARTICLE: Forget Carjackings: The Chocolate City Needs To Rise Up Against The Menthol Ban
RELATED VIDEO: Biden Plans to Raise Taxes On Middle Class Americans | TIPPING POINT
EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.
Shockingly racist! Is this why they won’t ban grape soda and fried chicken? Same/same.
Exactly. They judge people by the color of their skin, not by the content of their character.
MLK, Jr. is turning over in his grave.
What? I thought Pedo Joe was a black, Puerto Rican, Jewish truck driver who hung around on peoples porches. He surely smokes Newports himself.