Biden Reverses Course On Banning Menthol Cigarettes Over Fear Of Angering Black Voters: Report – By Ryan Saavedra (Daily Wire) / April 26, 2024
President Joe Biden has reportedly canceled a plan to ban menthol cigarettes after his administration feared that banning them could cause black voters to revolt against the president ahead of the upcoming election.
The Wall Street Journal reported that menthols account for roughly a third of all cigarette sales in the U.S. and that black people are overwhelmingly the largest consumers of the product.
Activist groups believe that by banning menthol cigarettes, there will be an explosion in black market sales of the product, which they claim will lead to racial profiling by law enforcement.
“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,” said Xavier Becerra, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. “It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time.”
