For months now, the Biden administration has been considering banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. Such a ban has been years in the making, as health officials insist it could reduce smoking-related deaths. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent the rule to the White House for review back in October, bringing the ban one step closer to reality.
And, for sure, it would have been on brand for the Biden administration to go forward with the ban.
"Public health and civil rights groups have long argued Black Americans have been disproportionately harmed by menthol cigarettes, as the tobacco industry deliberately targeted Black communities for decades," The Hill reported in October. "An estimated 85 percent of Black smokers use menthols, according to the FDA, compared with 30 percent of white smokers. It is estimated that approximately 40 percent of excess deaths due to menthol cigarette smoking in the U.S. between 1980 and 2018 were those of African Americans."
The Biden administration appeared poised to implement the ban. As the Wall Street Journal noted, the plan was part of Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative to reduce death rates from cancer, and believed the policy would "reduce youth initiation, increase the success rate for smokers trying to quit and address health disparities among people of color."
I'm sure Joe Biden, who never misses an opportunity to pander to the black community, would love to present himself as the hero who saved hundreds of thousands of black lives, but on Friday, the Biden administration decided there was something that matters much more than black lives right now: black votes.
“This rule has garnered historic attention and the public comment period has yielded an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time.”
In other words, the popularity of menthol cigarettes among the black community is what's causing the delay of the rule. Heck, the reason for the decision is so obvious that even CNN acknowledged that the proposed rule "posed political risks for President Joe Biden as he runs for re-election."
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As for when a final decision on the rule might come, the Biden administration wouldn't say, but I'm willing to bet it won't happen until after the election.
"Menthol cigarettes have become a pivotal issue for Biden, who is facing an election year with concerns over a dropoff in turnout from Black voters," reports CNN. "Minority groups, especially Black people, have been aggressively targeted with menthol marketing by tobacco companies, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and menthol cigarettes have contributed to widened health disparities."
Polls have shown Biden is losing support from black voters, and clearly he is worried about exacerbating the problem, but, even Biden's delay of the ban could backfire.
On Friday, Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, panned the delay as “a blow to the Black community, who continue to be unfairly targeted and unjustly killed by Big Tobacco."
He added, "Let’s be clear – valuing Black lives should not be used as a pawn to get our people to the polls, but rather a platform that our leaders refuse to step down from. The NAACP is outraged and disgusted, but we refuse to be deterred.”
When even Biden's allies see the move as a cheap political maneuver, you know he's in trouble.
