A couple of weeks ago, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray joined the podcast and tossed some barbs at Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant for campaigning for Green Party nominee Jill Stein for president, instead of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
This week, Sawant, the Socialist Alternative member of the City Council, joins Overcast hosts Jim Brunner and Dan Beekman to respond — and to give her own view of some hot Seattle political issues, including a proposed local income tax on the wealthy and Murray’s planned property tax to help the homeless.
First, Sawant addresses a mini-feud between her and Murray that arose after she implied the city was too complicit with Trump administration plans for mass deportations of illegal immigrants.
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At a protest last month, Sawant suggested Seattle police should block federal immigration officers from seizing immigrants. (She later clarified her statement, saying she was not urging local police to literally engage in a standoff with the feds.)
When Murray joined the podcast a couple weeks ago, he bristled at Sawant’s suggestion he was not doing enough to stand up to Trump, pointing to her own actions in urging voters to support Stein over Clinton.
Sawant, who had supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, led protests against Clinton at last summer’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. But she rejects Murray’s assertion that it’s somehow hypocritical for her to now protest against Trump.
“I feel that if we are trying to do a serious analysis of what happened last year – and we should —Â then giving me so much credit, I don’t thing it’s accurate. I don’t believe Clinton lost the Rust Belt five states because I went to Philly,” Sawant says. “I think it’s important that politicians like Mayor Murray get away from such superficial analysis.”
Sawant also criticizes Murray for allowing Seattle police to “repress” peaceful protests against Trump, including the major demonstrations at Sea-Tac Airport against Trump’s travel-ban order.
Sawant also gives her take on upcoming tax votes before the council, and says maybe the city should look at raising business taxes instead of some other, more regressive options.
Also, Beekman and Brunner issue their binding decree naming this week’s winners and losers in local politics: Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Seattle City Hall’s full-block “Civic Hole.”
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