Obama in Philly Today for NAACP
President Obama visited Philadelphia last fall to campaign for gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf.Photo | Jeff Fusco
President Obama will be in town today to address the national convention of the NAACP, where he’s expected to outline criminal justice reform proposals. He’ll also travel to The Rittenhouse Hotel for a late-afternoon meeting with senior party officials.
The president arrives at Philadelphia International Airport shortly after 2 p.m., then address the convention shortly after 3 p.m. He’ll go to the Rittenhouse for the closed-door party meeting at 4:10 p.m., then lift off from the airport at 5:50 p.m.
“Obama will urge a bipartisan congressional effort to reform the criminal justice system, according to a White House official. He will discuss policing and prisons, and the role of communities, and will call for an approach to crimefighting that addresses social problems, such as poverty,” Huffington Post reports.
“At the NAACP convention on Monday, a group of lawmakers discussed bipartisan criminal justice legislation under consideration in Congress. These included a bill co-sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) advocating for shorter prison sentences for non-violent offenders and reducing the effect of criminal records for juvenile offenders when they become adults.”
CBS Philly talked to NAACP President Cornell Brooks, who noted that former President Bill Clinton and current Attorney General Loretta Lynch will also speak at the convention today. “They all come to this place understanding we speak to the moment, it’s not enough for us to be spectators,” Brooks told the TV station. “We’ve got to speak to the moment, but more than that, we’ve got to act on it.”
You can watch the NAACP’s live stream of events here.
