Excerpts from Washington Post Article (bold emphasis, mine):
Marking the onset of a new phase in the Democratic primary race, African American leaders who support Hillary Clinton unloaded on her opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, accusing him of being "absent" on issues important to African Americans.
"Bernie Sanders as mayor, as a member of the House, as a member of the United States Senate, has been missing in action on issues that are important to the African Americans," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York. "There’s no credibility to the things that are being said at the twilight of his political career."
… The comments underscore the importance of the black vote in subsequent primary states, especially in the upcoming South Carolina contest, where African Americans make up more than half of the electorate. Clinton's campaign has said that they believe she will hold onto her sizable lead with black voters, despite Sanders's outreach efforts.
… The campaign announced the endorsement of South Carolina House Democratic Leader J. Todd Rutherford on Wednesday and a slew of other political leaders in the state.
Rutherford joined Jeffries in sharply denouncing Sanders for being "missing in action" on issues that matter to black voters.
Rutherford faulted Sanders for voting in favor of a 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which has been blamed for helping to usher in an era of mass incarceration. Former president Bill Clinton, who signed the bill into law, has expressed regret for the consequences of the legislation.*
"He only really started talking about issues concerning African Americans in the last 40 days," Rutherford said. "On the question of social justice for African Americans, the record is thin."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/10/black-leaders-who-support-hillary-clinton-slam-bernie-sanders-on-race-issues/
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In the first policy speech of her nascent presidential bid, Hillary Clinton tied the prison system directly to poverty and inequality. “Without the mass incarceration that we currently practice, millions fewer people would be living in poverty,” she said.
It was a rebuke of the system that the 1994 bill helped to build and that she had supported as first lady.
Bill Clinton said in his interview with CNN that his wife was right to take on the policies he had supported while in office.
"I strongly support what she's doing and I think any policy that was adopted when I was president, any federal law that contributed to it needs to be changed," he said.
*Bill Clinton Apologizes For Omnibus Crime Act & Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Both Of Which Bernie Sanders Voted “Yes.”
Unlike a lot of politicians, Clinton has shown a willingness to own up to his mistakes. Earlier this week, he offered a mea culpa around sentencing at the NAACP convention. Here's an incomplete list of policies he pursued as president that he has since acknowledged were not the best choices.
“I signed a bill that made the problem worse,” he said. “And I want to admit it.”
In April, Clinton acknowledged in an introduction to a book of essays about criminal justice that these policies were "overly broad instead of appropriately tailored."
"Some are in prison who shouldn't be, others are in for too long, and without a plan to educate, train, and reintegrate them into our communities, we all suffer," he wrote. www.huffingtonpost.com/…
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Personally, I think it’s disingenuous to place the blame for the repercussions of the 1994 Omnibus Crime Act and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act solely on Hillary Clinton. Bernie voted for both. And Joe Biden is credited with getting both passed by the vast majority of Democrats. Keep in mind, at the time, Black leaders and pastors supported this legislature because of the rapid rise of gang shootings in Black communities.
Yes, in hindsight this legislation was too broad. Yes, sentencing portions of this legislature caused the incarceration of far too many Black men and this is wrong. However, the blame is shared by many. And to heap it on one woman, who was First Lady at the time, is simply unacceptable.
Sure, you can go back 25 years and find “kitchen sinks” to throw at Hillary Clinton because she has put herself out there, time and again. She’s spoken out on many many social and rights issues, putting herself on the record and on the line. Logic tells you, the more you put yourself out there, the more likely you’ll make mistakes. The upside is — when you’re right you call attention to problems that most people like to forget about.
Hillary and Bill have apologized for their mistakes and I for one appreciate politicians who can look back and say, “I was wrong.” Most importantly she has evolved, like we all have. And who among us wants to be demonized for things we said 25 years ago yet no longer believe?
As for Bernie Sanders, there are fewer “kitchen sinks” to throw at him because, when he’s spoken out during his 40 years in elected office, it’s been related to one issue: the rigged economy. And as a voter I have to ask: Okay. What else have you done? What else have you got?
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UPDATE: Congressional Black Caucus PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton 45 minutes ago.
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IN RESPONSE to those citing Bernie’s March with MLK, Hillary was active during that era, too. In 1972, she went undercover posing as woman seeking to enroll her ‘imaginary’ child in an Alabama private school, to gather information about the Nixon Administration’s failure to enforce the legal ban on granting tax-exempt status to the private segregated academies that had sprung up in the South to avoid integrated public schools.
From NYTIMES: www.nytimes.com/...
On a humid summer day in 1972, Hillary Rodham walked into this town’s new private academy, a couple of cinder-block classrooms erected hurriedly amid fields of farmland, and pretended to be someone else.
Playing down her flat Chicago accent, she told the school’s guidance counselor that her husband had just taken a job in Dothan, that they were a churchgoing family and that they were looking for a school for their son.
The future Mrs. Clinton, then a 24-year-old law student, was working for Marian Wright Edelman, the civil rights activist and prominent advocate for children. Mrs. Edelman had sent her to Alabama to help prove that the Nixon administration was not enforcing the legal ban on granting tax-exempt status to so-called segregation academies, the estimated 200 private academies that sprang up in the South to cater to white families after a 1969 Supreme Court decision forced public schools to integrate.
Her mission was simple: Establish whether the Dothan school was discriminating based on race.
From Hilary’s Book:
“As part of my investigation, I drove to Alabama. At a local private school, I had an appointment to meet an administrator to discuss enrolling my imaginary child. I went through my role-playing, asking questions about the curriculum and makeup of the student body. I was assured that no black students would be enrolled.
Living History, by Hillary Clinton, p. 57 , Nov 1, 2003