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Responding to the latest polling out of the New York Times and Siena College, which found that 49% of likely voters plan to vote for a Republication to represent them in Congress, compared to 45% who plan to vote for a Democrat, Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski said that Republicans have a narrow, but distinct advantage. These numbers are a one-point improvement from last month.

The poll showed that the economy and inflation are the top two issues concerning Americans right now, along with the state of democracy, abortion and immigration. Scarborough doubled down and said that inflation is becoming a burden for Democratic candidates, particularly after last weeks inflation report.

You have an overwhelming number of Americans believing that the country is going in the wrong direction, Scarborough said.

Also Read:Morning Joe': Scarborough Rails on Steve Scalise for Lying Through Your Teeth Over Jan. 6 Insurrection

Rev. Al Sharpton, who was on the line as a pundit on the matter, agreed, citing the economy and inflation as two issues that are entangled in Americans everyday lives.

You can deny reality, but you cant escape it, Sharpton said. The fact of the matter is that as much as I and others want to deal with the fact that democracy is at stake here people are reacting to their own economic condition. When you look at the fact that gas prices are going back up, grocery [prices] are going up, 401K plans are taking a 25% hit this is where people live, and the Democrats have to address that.

Sharpton added that while these issues arent the fault of the current administration, President Biden and his Democratic colleagues need to properly address them to gain voters trust.

Also Read:Morning Joe': George Conway Nails the Shortest Distance Between Donald Trump and an Orange Jumpsuit (Video)

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If you dont address [the fact that] tax cuts to the wealthy are the reasons that we began this slow walk here, and you just talk about things that are not immeditately the concern of people, you lose their votes and you lose their ear, he said.

Scarborough said that while Americans care about various issues, their focus is on whats in front of them every single day, as many Americans feel like theyre falling further and further behind as inflation continues to loom upon the nation.

The co-host added: [Americans] are looking at their grocery prices, theyre looking at their gas prices, theyre looking at the fact that they cant even afford a used car because that markets skyrocketing, theyre looking at rent. If youre a young voter, you love the fact that your college loans were forgiven. Maybe you like what [the Biden administration] did on marijuana. All of these things for younger voters sound great, but then theyre trying to buy their first house, [and] they cant do it because the costs have exploded and interest rates are so high.

Inflation is really burdening Democratic candidates across the country, Scarborough continued. This is going to be a real challenge for Democrats over the next three weeks. And right now, history is in the Republicans favor.

You can watch the full video here or in the embed above.

Also Read:Morning Joe Calls Herschel Walker Abortion Scandal Worse Than Trumps Access Hollywood Tape: GOP at Its Lowest (Video)

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Morning Joe Explains Why New Poll Has GOP Winning Midterms: Voters Reacting to Their Own Economic Condition (Video) - Yahoo Entertainment

A recent report from NBC News said that President Joe Biden told a confidant the Rev. Al Sharpton, of all people that he will run for reelection in 2024. Its not terribly well-sourced, attributing the information to an official of Sharptons National Action Network who told NBC what Sharpton had told him.

A couple of weeks later, in an interview with CBSs 60 Minutes the presidents first one-on-one interview with a news organization in months Biden would not say that he is running again. Look, if I were to say to you, Im running again, a whole range of things come into play that I have requirements I have to change and move and do. That was slightly garbled, but what Biden apparently meant was that a formal declaration of candidacy would mean that Biden would have to obey a number of election laws, with their requirements for fundraising disclosure, that kick in once a candidate has officially declared.

And its much too early to make that kind of decision, Biden continued. Im a great respecter of fate. And so, what Im doing is Im doing my job. Im gonna do that job. And within the time frame that makes sense after this next election cycle here, going into next year, make a judgment on what to do.

CBSs Scott Pelley asked: You say that its much too early to make that decision. I take it the decision has not been made in your own head? Biden answered: Look, my intention as I said to begin with is that I would run again. But its just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen.

Even if Biden has decided to run again, he is right about the disclosure requirements of the campaign finance laws. It would not be to his advantage to announce now.

Even if Biden has decided not to run again, politically, he cant say so. The moment Biden announces that he will not seek a second term is the moment the entire political conversation turns to his successor, on the Democratic ticket and in the White House. Will it be Vice President Kamala Harris? Will it be another one of the 2020 Democratic primary field? Will it be someone else? The conversation will go on as if Biden did not exist.

Most importantly, Biden is simply too old to run again. He was too old to run in 2020, and he is definitely too old now. Biden will be 82 at the end of his term. If he runs again, he will be asking American voters to put him in office until he is 86. That is totally unheard of in American history. And Biden has already shown plenty of signs that age has slowed him down, and that there is reason for the public to be concerned about his mental acuity.

Donald Trump was elected at age 70, serving until he was 74. From a voters perspective, the 2016 election effectively established 70 as an acceptable age for presidents. Had she won, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would have turned 70 in her first year in office and would assuredly have run for reelection, which, had she won, would have meant serving until she was 77.

The question now is whether Biden can establish 80 as an acceptable age for presidents. Its not going well. Many observers were concerned recently by the presidents Wheres Jackie? moment, when at a Sept. 28 White House event he called out to recognize Rep. Jackie Walorski, a Republican congresswoman from Indiana who was killed in an auto accident on Aug. 3. Biden, who had issued a statement when Walorski died, seemed completely unaware that she was gone. Later, in response to repeated press questioning, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to admit Biden made a mistake, saying instead that Biden had Walorski top of mind during the event.

It was a disconcerting episode that probably would have been dismissed had it not come after reams of evidence, many many examples, that suggest Biden has memory and cognitive issues.

So now Biden may or may not have decided to run again. Polls show a large majority of Democrats nearly two-thirds of his own party would prefer to have another candidate on the presidential ticket in 2024. Some of that opposition comes from the growing belief that Biden is just too old for the job.

Still, Biden might insist on trying for a second term, especially if it becomes clear that Trump, who will turn 78 in 2024, decides to run again. A second term would mean Trump would serve to age 82, meaning that a Biden-Trump matchup in 2024 would be a campaign in which both candidates are too old to be president.

At some point, American voters will have to stand up and say no, there is no reason to test the limits of aging over and over again its time for someone else.

Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. Send comments to [emailprotected]

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Byron York: Joe Biden, the 82-year-old candidate? - The Republic

TheGrio/KFF Survey of Black Votersfinds that the economy is the top-tier issue for Black voters as inflation numbers hit a 40-year high.

As the 2022 midterm elections approach in less than 30 days, a new TheGrio/KFF survey found that the economy is the top-tier issue for Black voters as inflation numbers hit a 40-year high of 8.2% in September.

The poll, a partnership between theGrio and KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on research and analysis of health and other national issues, interviewed 1,000 registered voters who identify as Black or African American from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5, 2022. Among some of the findings in the nationwide survey, 73% of Black voters name inflation and other economic issues as the biggest concern for them and their families when asked to state this in their own words.

Among voters concerned about the economy, 32% mentioned concerns about the prices of goods, such as food, the cost of living and gas. Another 21% expressed concern about poverty and personal financial hardships. Interest rates, the stock market, affordable housing, debt, wages, and health care costs were also among some of Black voters economic concerns.

These findings come as President Joe Biden recently told Jake Tapper on CNN that America could possibly see a very slight recession but that he doesnt anticipate it. However, experts are offering a different potential reality of an economic downturn.

Beyond economic concerns, Black voters also mentioned health concerns, including the pandemic (9%), crime, gun violence and safety (3%), and racism/racial disparities (2%) as major concerns for their families.

Whats more, about 8 in 10 Black voters in TheGrio/KFF survey say the U.S. political and economic systems are stacked against people like them. Large majorities say this regardless of age, gender, income, or education.

Dr. Alex Camardelle, director of workforce policy at The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, told theGrio there is a deepening economic inequality and basic needs insecurity as costs are increasing.

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She explained, Black workers are being left behind in the nations economic recovery. Black communities have the highest unemployment rates and are grappling with stubborn pay inequities.

Gas prices have been a national concern this year. The expectation is that things will get much worse as OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) has decided to cut the production of gasoline, which will cause problems with meeting demand and will push gas prices upward.

For months, the Biden administration has been releasing daily gasoline from the strategic oil reserves to bring down the price at the pump. However, when it comes to gas prices, even with the price drop recent weeks ago, there was a phenomenon the White House was concerned about.Gas prices dropped; however, the Black community did not witness the impact.

Al Sharpton told theGrio that his organization, National Action Network, has been informed that gas prices have not gone down in communities of color as they have in other areas of the country. He blamed the occurrence on the racial redlining of price manipulation.

He explained, they feel that where we have less gas stations, that they can keep the price up and go and do whatever they want to do.

Black financial expert Allen Boomer told theGrio that in the Black communities, we are feeling the impact of a 20% higher price at the pump than a year ago on top of higher prices at the grocery store. For anyone who has to rely on a car for transportation, higher gas prices feel like a tax.

TheGrio/KFF survey also found that among a range of economic challenges, 31% of Black voters would most like President Biden and Congress to address the cost of housing, followed by the cost of food (24%), the cost of health care (23%) student debt (12%) and the cost of gasoline (10%).

When asked by theGrio/KFF how important certain issues were in deciding who to vote for in this years midterm elections, 76% of Black voters said inflation, including gas prices, was very important, and 75% named the affordability of housing as very important.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge told theGrio that, access to good and affordable housing in the United States had been a problem for decades. Moreover, the Black homeownership rate is nearly as low as it was when the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968. And as far as renting, investors are buying up property and driving up costs, thereby reducing the availability of affordable rental units. The secretary says the country is short 1.5 million affordable housing units.

One of the culprits is gentrification, said Fudge. When you consider the fact that the average rent in this country today, the median is $2,000 a month. A person making minimum wage cannot afford to pay it, she said.

Senior citizens and those on fixed incomes cannot afford to paylow-income workers cannot afford to pay it. So they are the people who are most affected.

She continued: Housing is an issue for everybody in this country. So I think that when you consider the fact that when there is a national problem, the people who tend to be hurt worst are people of color and low-income people.

About the Survey

The Survey of Black Voters is the first partnership survey between theGrio and KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on research and analysis of health and other national issues. Teams from KFF and theGrio worked together to develop the questionnaire and analyze the data, and both organizations contributed financing for the survey. Each organization is solely responsible for its content.

The survey was conducted Aug. 24Sept. 5 with a nationally representative, probability-based sample of 1,000 adults who identify as Black or African American and are registered to vote. The sample includes all voters who identify as Black or African American, including those who also identify as Hispanic or multi-racial. The sampling design includes Black registered voters reached online through the SSRS Opinion Panel and the Ipsos KnowledgePanel; to reach Black voters who do not use the internet, additional interviews were conducted by calling back respondents who previously participated in an SSRS Omnibus poll and identified as Black and said they did not use the internet. The combined telephone and panel samples were weighted to match the samples demographics to the national U.S. population of Black voters using data from the Census Bureaus 2020 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration supplement. Sampling, data collection, weighting and tabulation were managed by SSRS of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania in close collaboration with KFF researchers.

The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points for results based on the full sample of Black voters. The full methodology and question-wording are available here.

April Ryan (AMG/theGrio)

April Ryan is also the Washington D.C Bureau Chief and Senior White House Correspondent at theGrio. She can be seen on CNN as a political analyst.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also,please download theGrio mobile appstoday!

The post Black voters name inflation, economic issues as biggest concern ahead of midterm elections in TheGrio/KFF survey appeared first on TheGrio.

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Black voters name inflation, economic issues as biggest concern ahead of midterm elections - Yahoo News

Hattie Leeper is a lifetime Charlottean and acquaintance to many of the greats, but most of all shes a mom and a friend to those who still call her Chatty Hattie.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Shes a native Charlottean who became a legendary radio personality. Her given name, recorded in the family Bible, is Hattie Leeper. By the time she was a teenager and on the air at WGIV radio, she was Chatty Hattie.

Back in those days, to help capture a big listening audience, radio DJs used names that rhymed. The Chatty worked well with Hattie, and did so for decades. She was the first black female radio DJ in Charlotte and one of the first in America.

Leeper began working for WGIV radio at the age of 14, helping around the station and learning the ropes from the stations group of seasoned announcers. By 1951, as 17-years-old, she was on the air with her own show. She stayed on the air for decades, becoming a household name in Charlotte and all across the Carolinas.

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She became involved in the music industry as well, managing a number of local music groups and even started her own record label, called Aware Records.

She also wrote and produced a number of regional hits for the label and traveled to Chicago and New York City to do the sessions. This was at the invitation of some of the top management in the business, including the legendary Jerry Wexler, the President of Atlantic Records. Leeper wrote the liner notes for many of the top artists of that time, including Aretha and Patti Labelle.

Leeper also had other goals in her life, like higher education. She earned a Masters in Education Administration at Central Piedmont Community College. Soon afterward, she became a college instructor. Eventually, Leeper served as the Dean of the Communications Department at Gaston Collegeand held that position for eleven years. She left there and became the founder and owner of her own very successful local record stores.

Over the years, Hattie Leeper has received many awards and was honored numerous times. Earlier this month she was given one of the biggest honors of her life: induction into the National Black Radio Hall of Fame. This was at a ceremony at the Harris Stowe State University's Emerson Theatre in St. Louis. Others honored at the same time were Al Sharpton and the members of the legendary R&B group The O'Jays

Hattie Leeper is a radio legend, record producer, songwriter, published author, educator, broadcast executive, and music historian. More than anything shes a lifetime Charlottean and acquaintance to many of the greats, but most of all shes a mom and a friend to all of those who still call her Chatty Hatty. Shes spinning the tunes from Belmont to Boone and all the way to the moon.and still rhyming after all these years.

Contact Larry Sprinkle atlsprinkle@wcnc.comand follow him onFacebook,TwitterandInstagram.

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Charlotte radio legend 'Chatty Hattie' inducted into Black Radio Hall of Fame - WCNC.com

Sherwin-Williams has responded to a protest being held on Tuesday regarding the construction of its new headquarters.

CLEVELAND Just before Rev. Al Sharpton began to speak at a rally outside of Cleveland City Hall calling for a Black-owned firm to be a key partner in the construction of Sherwin-Williams' global headquarters project on Tuesday, the Cleveland-based company released a statement responding to the protest.

Sherwin-Williams has been meeting with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb since he was elected. His support of our Company over that time has been and continues to be steadfast," Sherwin-Williams Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John G. Morikis said in a statement. "While we received many attractive offers to relocate our new headquarters from several cities nationally, Mayor Bibbs strong leadership and clear vision for Cleveland have only solidified our choice to stay and invest here. Working together with Mayor Bibb and his administration, we are focused on the right things, we are excited by what we have already accomplished, and we are confident that our continued partnership will achieve our shared goals of helping Cleveland, the region and Sherwin-Williams thrive for decades to come."

Sherwin-Williams also noted that it was hosted by the Urban League of Cleveland on Monday "to provide a joint update on the Building our Future project and the positive impact the project is having on the local community." Attendees at the event included:

Sherwin-Williams also said that its "deliberate and intentional process of ensuring diverse firms are included in the Building Our Future project" has resulted in $122 million in contracts to diverse firms with a commitment that is expected to exceed $180 million and engagement with 57 diverse firms on the project to date.

"It is unfortunate that some are using their personal agendas and animosities to drive a false narrative and cloud the positive impact the Building Our Future project is making on the Cleveland community now and for years to come," the company said.

According to a flyer for Tuesday's protest, the rally aimed to "urge the Mayor and the City Council to show the public where taxpayer dollars are being spent on the construction of The Sherwin-Williams Company's new global headquarters. Black-owned firm should be named key partner with major managerial responsibilities and higher earning potential."

The Urban League of Greater Cleveland says it plans to continue its partnership with Sherwin-Williams.

There are three criteria that we consider when engaging in public-private partnerships, said Marsha A. Mockabee, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, in a statement. There must be an authentic commitment to diversity and inclusion, a demonstrated accountability to achieving the metrics, and the willingness to develop long-term strategies that empower communities and change lives. The Urban League is pleased to partner with Sherwin-Williams to bring its community impact commitment to fruition.

3News sat down with Mockabee, who added that while she understands aspirational goals, there are certain processes and policies that should go in place first.

"You first have to create policy, because without policy, there's no teeth to hold people accountable, so that's the first step," Mockabee said. "I think the second step is, you have to make sure that there is a pipeline of the kind of talent that you're talking about that you want in those positions, and that's what the Urban League is doing in helping Sherwin-Williams with their commitment."

Mockabee said developing policy can allow people in the African American community to benefit from contracts and the "opportunities to work and grow and develop wealth."

She added that conversations with civil rights colleagues and with partners involved in the project have informed the Urban League's decision to stay aligned with local leadership and work with Sherwin-Williams.

"Our job, the Urban League is, we feel, to extend the benefit from that building into our communities in ways that even Sherwin-Williams doesn't necessarily see immediately," she said. "So we're that sort of broker in between to help Sherwin-Williams see how they can bring benefit into the communities, and the communities can benefit from them staying here as a headquartered organization."

You can view Rev. Sharpton's comments at Tuesday's rally in the video player above or YouTube player below.

3News' Dave "Dino" DeNatale contributed to this report.

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Sherwin-Williams responds to Rev. Al Sharpton protest regarding Cleveland headquarters construction - WKYC.com