In an unfortunately politically smart move, President Joe Biden will delay a long-expected ban on menthol cigarettes as the risks of pissing off a potentially large segment of Black voters during an already fraught election year are too great to ignore, the Washington Post reports.
“The timing matters,” said one official acknowledging the delicate politics. It isn’t all about winning or losing however, since getting the process started in early 2024 would take years of legal challenges that would leave the effort vulnerable to being reversed if disgraced former President Trump – who declined to enact a ban while in office – or heels-wearing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – who has specifically pledged to undo any menthol ban – end up taking over. So Biden could screw himself by pushing for a ban only to see it erased by Trump or – far less likely – DeSantis.
It was almost four years ago that Axios reported Trump had raged at his HHS Secretary Alex Azar during a call in the Oval Office over the ban on flavored vape pods enacted in 2019. “I should never have done that fucking vaping thing,” said Donald, worried that his administration had cost him politically with the move. This reporter wasn’t going to vote for Donald anyway, and didn’t, but cucumber Juul pods being banned felt like just one extra “fuck you” from the Trump regime.