Few issues unite Al Sharpton, George Floyd’s brother, Grover Norquist, and Americans for Tax Reform, but Joe Biden managed to find it and galvanize yet another broad-based coalition against him. To the ardent protests of civil rights activists, police brutality protesters, deficit hawks, and free marketeers, the president announced that the Food and Drug Administration is banning menthol cigarettes.

As a senator, Biden was a proud foot soldier on the disgraceful and ineffective war on drugs, and as vice president, his boss broke precedent in giving the FDA regulatory control over the tobacco market by signing the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into effect.