Bernie Sanders invoked his Jewish heritage on Friday in a new attack on Donald Trump, telling attendees of a civil rights conference that he knows a thing or two about bigotry.
He said that while Trump believes Nazis and white supremacists are ‘very fine people,’ his ancestors were murdered by the Nazis.
‘So from a very young age, I knew that we must stand up to bigotry wherever and whenever it exits,’ he said at an event for activists.
Sanders blasted Trump by name for the ‘racist theory of the birther movement’ that he pushed when Barack Obama was president.
‘And how ugly was that?’ he asked the mostly African-American audience.
Bernie Sanders invoked his Jewish heritage on Friday in a new attack on Donald Trump, telling attendees of a civil rights conference that he knows a thing or two about bigotry
He said that the Republican president he’s seeking to replace is a ‘racist,’ as evidenced by the comments he made about the 2017 race riot in Charlottesville and the ‘sharp rise’ in hate crimes in America since he took office.
‘I wish I did not have to say that. But that is the damn truth and we gotta say that,’ he told a packed house.
White House hopefuls are making their pitch to black voters today in New York City at a conference that’s held annually by the Rev. Al Sharpton for civil rights activists.
The Sharpton event has become a must-pass through event for Democratic candidates eyeing the Oval Office. Barack Obama addressed the National Action Network conference in 2007. So did Hillary Clinton.
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Georgia politician Stacey made their appeals earlier in the week on Wednesday, and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg delivered remarks on Thursday.
Today a string of politicians, including Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand, will take their turns.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will also speak to attendees of a morning session.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is speaking at an event in Washington, D.C. and is not scheduled to attend Sharpton’s conference in the New York.
The under-siege Democrat spoke at Sharpton’s annual King Day breakfast in January in Washington, though.
Sharpton insisted Friday that the conference is about highlighting and discussing racial injustice — if he wanted to make it about himself he said he would bring the candidates on his MSNBC program.
‘This is not about kissing my ring or Al Sharpton the kingmaker,’ he said. ‘Be not confused: I could have every candidate on my television show.’
White House hopefuls are making their pitch to black voters today in New York City at a conference that’s held annually by the Rev. Al Sharpton for civil rights activists
A string of politicians, including Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand will take their turns on Friday
Candidates who have spoken this week have been put on the spot by Sharpton, who founded the organization in the early ’90s.
Pressed to back a bill sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee that would create a commission to study the possibility of federal reparations for slavery, O’Rourke threw his support behind the measure.
‘I would sign that into law,’ he told Sharpton on Wednesday.
Jackson Lee says her bill would ‘make recommendations concerning any form of apology and compensation to begin the long delayed process of atonement for slavery.’
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, also from Texas, has endorsed the legislation, as well. So did, Hickenlooper and Sanders, when they came under pressure from Sharpton on Friday. They did so hesitantly, and with strings attached, to the audible chagrin of attendees, however.
Warren and Booker, both of whom are speaking at the conference on Friday, have said they back the bill, too. The senator from Massachusetts has called for a ‘national, full-blown conversation’ on the issue.
Other presidential candidates have been less clear about their positions on the thorny topic.
Harris has generically backed the idea of a study on the ‘effects of generations of discrimination and institutional racism’ that would seriously take a look at ‘intervention, to correct course.’
She did not address the topic in her remarks at Sharpton’s conference. Harris, who is half-black, spoke instead about raising teacher pay and gun violence prevention.
The freshman senator from California gently derided ‘supposed leaders in Washington, D.C.’ who she said are not doing enough to enact universal background checks and a renew the assault weapons ban.
‘We are better than this, and we certainly can do better than this,’ she said.
She brought up white nationalism and said that she would take it seriously as president.
‘Justice means recognizing domestic terrorism, including white nationalistic extremism, from Pittsburgh to Charlottesville to Orlando as a threat to the country we love and should be considered a national security priority,’ she said, as she took a dig at the sitting president.
Sharpton asked her directly about the reparations legislation and whether she’d sign it as president before he let her leave the stage. ‘Uh oh,’ a vocal audience member said, before Harris could answer.
But she said to applause, ‘When I am elected president, I will sign that bill.’
She was the first in a long line-up of 2020 Democrats to address the National Action Network conference’s morning session.
She did not elaborate or come by a press pin of reporters, where she could have been buttonholed on the subject.
President Trump has not been asked about reparations but he has made extensive appeals to black voters, championing criminal justice reform and touting the historically-low unemployment rate among African-Americans.
He memorably told black voters in 2016 who might be hesitant to support him: ‘What the hell do you have to lose?’
Trump said this week at a White House event in celebration of the First Step Act, which passed with bipartisan support, that he doesn’t regret his pointed ask of black voters who typically support Democrats to back him, even if the way he did was crass.
‘And you’ve seen where I’ve said a lot because I’m very proud of it. And I said, ‘What do you have to lose?’ And people would say, ‘Well, maybe you shouldn’t say it.’ But I meant that because it was tough. African American unemployment is the lowest level in the history of our country right now,’ he stated.