BREAKING NEWS: White House Chief of Staff tells protesters he is going to call US Atty. General Barr and ask him to look into broker transparency……tonight
In a surprise move, the White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows came out May 13th to address the truckers protesting in D.C., and told the drivers that “I will call the Attorney General of the United States, Bill Barr, as soon as I get back to the office and ask him to look at it,” in response to a driver asking about enforcing broker transparency regulations.
While we can’t hear much of what the White House Chief of Staff was saying in any video, the one thing that came out clear in the video below, is that Meadows said he was going contact the Attorney General and ask him to look into the broker price gouging and transparency issues.
Below is another video with clearer audio covering the first part of the meeting
This move, comes at the heels of one of the most active days during the 13 day protest, which began May 1st. Earlier today, during another rally at the White House, over 500 tour buses participated in a peaceful planned rally dubbed #busesmoveamerica. Videos from some of the truckers on the ground said that the bus drivers were there to support the truckers. The rally soon got a bit out of hand when several protesting truckers blocked parts of Constitution Avenue causing a disruption to the bus route.
In several videos, bus drivers are seen having to perform u-turns to avoid the blocked streets filled with protesters and their trucks.
Melanie Hinton, the Senior Director of Communications and Marketing for the ABA told Freight Broker Live that the goal of the rally today was to help amplify the voices of advocates in every state in the country, and help Congress and the White House understand how vital the motorcoach industry is to the United States. “This is industry has been devastated and is not expecting to return to normal operating levels for years,” Hinton said. “In addition, these small businesses and their 600 million customers impact the lives of nearly 2 million Americans who rely on the industry for all or part of their livelihood.”
“We are asking for $15 billion in grants and loans to ensure that when America needs and wants to travel again our bus companies will be still here to answer the call. Ninety percent of our industry is currently furloughed with estimated losses of $8 billion in the next few months. We are private business that do not receive any government subsidies like other sectors in the transportation industry. Frankly, we are too important to fail.
“This rally was not connected to the truck protest,” said Hinton when asked about the claims that the buses were part of the trucker protest. She declined to comment on the buses being forced to detour after truckers shut down the street.
This is a breaking story and more information will be made available as it come.
