Charles B. Rangel

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Charles Rangel

Charles Bernard Rangel (born June 11, 1930 in New York City ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . As a member of the US House of Representatives , he represented the current 15th congressional electoral district of New York State from 1971 to 2017 .

Family and education

After his military service from 1948 to 1952, during which he was awarded the Purple Heart badge for his service in the Korean War , Rangel studied at New York University and obtained his law degree from St. John's University School of Law .

Rangel sat from 1966 to 1970 in the New York State Assembly , the Parliament of the State of New York . He eventually defeated longtime Congressman Adam Clayton Powell in the Democratic primary and was elected to the House of Representatives. Its multi-ethnic congressional electoral district includes Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx .

Rangel lives in Harlem with his wife and they have two children.

Parliamentary work

Founding photo of the Congressional Black Caucus (Rangel 2nd from top left, 1971)

He has long been the highest-ranking Democratic member of the Committee on Ways and Means and a member of the subcommittee on trade. Since it was founded in 1971, Rangel was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, an association of black congressmen. During the Watergate Affair , he was a member of the Judiciary Committee and thus involved in the investigation that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon .

In 1987 Rangel played a leading role in the anti-apartheid legislation, which forbade the previously practiced crediting of corporate taxes paid in South Africa and thereby caused the withdrawal of numerous large American companies from South Africa.

Rangel regularly attracts attention through sensational actions or statements. Among other things, he has already been arrested several times as a participant in political demonstrations, most of which were about equality for African Americans. In February 2005, he called Bill Clinton a redneck (white, reactionary hillbilly) because Hillary Clinton refused to support Rangel's position in the Amadou Diallo case . Diallo, a black Muslim, was killed in controversial circumstances by four New York police officers in 1999.

In September 2005 he compared President George W. Bush to Bull Connor , a staunch defender of racial segregation from Alabama . Vice President Dick Cheney then expressed the suspicion that this statement was probably due to the advanced age of Rangel. Rangel naturally reacted indignantly.

Rangel as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee with the judge's gavel

Rangel, who had also been chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means from 2007, resigned from this position on March 3, 2010 after losing his party's support for sponsored flights to the Caribbean . Sander M. Levin , a Liberal MP for the Democratic Party from Michigan , was nominated to succeed him . Rangel himself wanted to keep his position as chairman of the Health Subcommittee and his membership in the Ways and Means Committee.

After Rangel had narrowly won the democratic primary before the 2012 and 2014 elections, he announced in the summer of 2014 that he would no longer apply for the seat in the November 2016 election . He therefore left the Congress on January 3, 2017. A number of high-ranking Democratic candidates were named for the coveted mandate, including former state governor David Paterson . The area code was the first open (i.e. without a mandate holder) since 1944, when Rangel's direct predecessor Adam Clayton Powell was first elected. Finally, Rangel's internal party challenger in 2012 and 2014, Adriano Espaillat, prevailed, who also prevailed in the main election in November 2016 and succeeded Rangel in Congress on January 3, 2017.

Honors

Rangel received the Honorary Order of Jamaica in 2009 , which caused criticism because of the simultaneous ethics investigation for a trip to the Caribbean.

Web links

Commons : Charles B. Rangel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rangel Steps Aside From Post During Ethics Inquiry. In: The New York Times , March 3, 2010.
  2. ^ Levin to Replace Rangel as Ways and Means Chairman. In: The New York Times , March 4, 2010.
  3. Jan Ransom: Congressional Hopefuls are already eyeing Rep. Charles Rangel's Seat. In: New York Daily News , June 30, 2014.
  4. Casey Tolan: Replacing Rangel: Jockeying Underway as Open 2016 Race Looms. In: Gotham Gazette , October 17, 2015.
  5. ^ Zachary Roth: Rangel Honored By Jamaican Government, While Ethics Panel Probes Caribbean Trips. In: TalkingPointsMemo , October 20, 2009.