AOC And GOP Congressman Say Trump Is Faking Support For Marijuana Reform As Campaign Ploy

Bipartisan congressional lawmakers on opposite sides of the marijuana reform debate are aligned on one thing: They don’t take former President Donald Trump at his word as he claims a newfound support for federal cannabis rescheduling and industry banking access.

In a series of interviews with Marijuana Moment on Capitol Hill on Thursday, legislators weighed in on the 2024 Republican nominee’s recent remarks endorsing both federal reform and a Florida marijuana legalization ballot initiative that he said he supports.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), an advocate for ending federal prohibition, said that the former president’s policy pivot “sounds like a Hail Mary to me,” adding, “I don’t think he’s serious” about the position.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), meanwhile, similarly shrugged off Trump’s comments. The anti-cannabis congressman, who has championed a longstanding appropriations rider blocking Washington, D.C. from legalizing marijuana sales, said, “I don’t think it’s anything” and that it simply amounted to “campaign talk.”

At the same time, while there’s skepticism about the authenticity of Trump’s recent cannabis platform—which was announced following a meeting with the CEO of a major marijuana company that’s primarily financed Florida’s legalization ballot measure—others see an opportunity to leverage a rare moment of bipartisan unity around the issue ahead of the November election.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, told Marijuana Moment that the former president’s statement in favor of rescheduling, banking reform and Florida’s initiative “shows that now everybody agrees—even Donald Trump.”

“He’s been dithering on this since 2016,” the congressman added. “It doesn’t make that much difference.”

However, Blumenauer didn’t seem to put much stock into the sincerity of Trump’s position, either. In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic nominee, “has been with us all along,” he said, referencing her advocacy for legalization and sponsorship of a comprehensive reform bill during her time in the Senate. (Harris did campaign against a marijuana legalization ballot initiative in California in 2010.)

Trump has been “screwing around with this since 2016, and he’s not forthright and comprehensive,” Blumenauer said.

Harris’s campaign has also recently accused Trump of lying about his support for marijuana reform, arguing that his “blatant pandering” runs counter to his administration’s record on cannabis.

“As president, Trump cracked down on nonviolent marijuana offenses—undermining state legalization laws, opposed safe banking legislation, and even tried to remove protections for medical marijuana,” Harris campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello said on Monday. “Donald Trump does not actually believe in marijuana reform, but the American people are smart enough to see through his campaign lies.”

While the campaign seems willing to call out Trump on his marijuana platform, it’s been notably silent on the 2024 Democratic nominee’s own position—even though she privately reaffirmed her support for legalization during a roundtable event at the White House event with marijuana pardon recipients in March and also sponsored a bill to end federal prohibition during her time in the Senate.

Advocates have also taken notice that a new, long-awaited issues page launched by the Harris campaign omits any mention of marijuana policy reform despite her record promoting comprehensive legalization.

The overall silence on the issue from Harris’s end seems to have created an opening for Trump to seize the issue in recent weeks, culminating in a post he made on his social media site Truth Social on Sunday, where he embraced the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana and also backed freeing up banks to work with state-legal cannabis businesses.

The prior Biden-Harris campaign had also made several prior attempts to contrast the administration’s marijuana reform actions with those of the Trump administration, emphasizing the role Sessions played in rescinding the cannabis enforcement guidance.

But since Harris became the nominee, it’s been Trump who’s been most vocal about his desire to see cannabis reform implemented. And given that polling shows voters, especially Democrats, are motivated to support candidates who embrace marijuana legalization, the omission of that position on her campaign issues page and in this latest campaign comment attacking Trump’s record are all the more glaring.

Following Trump’s recent announcement of support for the Florida cannabis legalization ballot measure, the campaign for Harris has worked to remind voters that while in office, Trump “took marijuana reform backwards.”

In a memo from a senior campaign spokesperson, the Harris campaign accused Trump of “brazen flip flops” on cannabis. The Democratic campaign says it’s one of the Republican former president’s “several bewildering ‘policy proposals’ that deserve real scrutiny.”

“On issue after issue, Trump is saying one thing after having done another,” the memo says. “For example: As a candidate in 2024, he suggests he is for decriminalizing marijuana – but as President, his own Justice Department cracked down on marijuana offenses.”

Trump’s latest marijuana post follows up on one he made last month in which he indicated—but did not explicitly say—he supported Amendment 3 in Florida. The earlier comments predicted that Florida voters would approve the cannabis measure and generally discussed the benefits of legalization, but left some observers wanting more clarity on the former president’s position on the specific state initiative.

Trump also discussed the medical benefits of cannabis and said legalization would be “very good” for Florida in an interview with Lex Fridman last week.

Last month at a press conference, Trump told a reporter that he’s starting to “agree a lot more” that people should not be criminalized over marijuana given that it’s “being legalized all over the country”—adding that he would “fairly soon” reveal his position on the Florida ballot measure.

Meanwhile, longtime ally and GOP political operative Roger Stone, who is also a Florida resident and supports the legalization proposal, separately told Marijuana Moment that if Trump did ultimately endorse the measure it would “guarantee victory.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who is sponsoring a bill to federally legalize marijuana called the States Reform Act, separately said that while she hoped Trump would back the Biden administration’s rescheduling move, she also said part of the reason Republicans in Congress have declined to embrace marijuana policy change is because they’re “afraid of it.”

Trump also recently went after Harris over her prosecutorial record on marijuana, claiming that she put “thousands and thousands of Black people in jail” for cannabis offenses—but the full record of her time in office is more nuanced.

Trump’s line of attack, while misleading, was nonetheless notable in the sense that the GOP presidential nominee implied that he disagrees with criminalizing people over marijuana and is moving to leverage the idea that Harris played a role in racially disproportionate mass incarceration.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) separately told Marijuana Moment in a recent interview that if Trump is serious about his recently stated support for the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act, he needs to “bring us some Republican senators” to advance it through the chamber.

Hickenlooper, as well as Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), weighed in on the cannabis banking issue in interviews on Tuesday, though none were aware at the time that Trump had endorsed the policy change days earlier.

Brown said that “we don’t have enough Republicans, we don’t think,” to secure the passage of the SAFER Banking Act. That point has previously been contested, however, with the bill’s lead Republican sponsor Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) insisting that the votes are there to move the measure along.

Hickenlooper, meanwhile, said that while he hadn’t been appraised on the latest Trump remarks on cannabis banking, he’s skeptical about how serious the former president is in the position, commenting that “it might change by tomorrow” given his proclivity for rapidly taking on opposite sides of various issues.

He added that the SAFER Banking Act is “going through this process,” but he also said the Biden administration’s push to federally reschedule cannabis represents “a major step forward” that could help grease the wheels on marijuana banking reform.

“I think rescheduling is going to get SAFE Banking through the Senate,” the senator said. “Donald Trump can say whatever he wants, but unless you bring us some Republican senators, we’re not going to get SAFE Banking.”

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report last month explaining that federal marijuana rescheduling is “unlikely” to improve banking access for state-legal cannabis businesses, But Blumenauer similarly argued that the reclassification move, when it is enacted, could have a political effect that spurs action on the separate marijuana banking legislation.

It should also be noted that the proposed rescheduling action isn’t guaranteed. Following a public comment period, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) last month announced that it has scheduled an administrative hearing in December to gain additional input before potentially finalizing the rule. It’s possible that rulemaking could extend into January, meaning there’s a chance that the next presidential administration could influence the final outcome.

Meanwhile, as the November election approaches, a recent series of polls found widespread majority support for marijuana legalization, cannabis federal rescheduling and cannabis industry banking access among likely voters in three key presidential battleground states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The LCB contributed reporting from Washington, D.C. 

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