Bernie Sanders Tells Harlem Crowd That Bill Clinton Needs To Apologize For Defending Hillary Clinton To Black Lives Matter Protesters

Bernie Sanders stood in front of a Harlem crowd on Saturday and declared that Bill Clinton owes the country an apology for continuing to defend Hillary Clinton’s use of the term “super predator” to talk about juvenile offenders. It was during Bill Clinton’s Philadelphia rally that the former president clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters, yelled over them and then defended two very damaging bills that he championed in the 90s.

“I think the president owes the American people an apology for trying to defend what’s indefensible,” Sanders told a Harlem crowd of just over 1,000 people. During the event at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Sanders took the opportunity to address the huge differences in the way he handles crime and poverty versus the way Hillary Clinton has handled the same issue in the past and the way she plans to handle it in the future, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Bernie Sanders’ visit to Harlem was all part of his very busy Saturday campaigning in New York before the April 19 primary. The setup was a little different than most of Bernie’s speeches. It consisted of a panel of three Sanders supporters, entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte; the daughter of Eric Garner who died at the hands of the New York City police in 2014, Erica Garner; and former Ohio state senator Nina Turner. The panel was moderated by television and radio personality Charlamagne Tha God.

During the event, someone in the audience shouted that Hillary Clinton’s use of the word “super predator” really is just code for “black people.” Bernie Sanders responded, saying, “That’s right.” One of the members of Sanders’ audience held up a sign that said, “Black youth are not super predators.” The entire conversation was about Hillary’s use of the term in the 1990s when she made a comment about “the kind of kids that are called super-predators” and how the justice system needed “to bring them to heel.”

“Welfare reform was an intentional effort to curb financial assistance to poor people…” https://t.co/kuBG52HAhj

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 10, 2016

When Bill Clinton was faced with Black Lives Matter protesters who questioned his 1994 crime bill and the 1996 welfare reform bill that were both devastating to many black families and still affect them in a very negative way, he began yelling over them. In response to their criticism over Hillary Clinton’s use of the term “super predators,” Bill said, “I don’t know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-olds hopped up on crack and sent them out onto the street to murder other African American children. Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She didn’t!”

When Bernie Sanders was asked what he thought of the exchange between Bill Clinton and the Black Lives Matter protesters, he only had one word, “Unacceptable!” After the applause quieted, Bernie continued. “We all know what the term meant in the context that it was said years ago. We know who they were talking about.” Bernie continued his Harlem speech by saying, “We’re not going to be beating up on the poor.”

.@BernieSanders on Bill Clinton’s 90s crime rhetoric: Elected leaders shouldn’t “be using that type of terminology.” pic.twitter.com/uVZWcyQH5P

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 10, 2016

That’s when Harry Belafonte spoke up and said, “We have been there and done that!” Belafonte, as well as Erica Garner and Nina Turner, all endorse Bernie Sanders for president.

Bernie also talked about his time as a student at the University of Chicago. It was at that time in the 1960s that Sanders was a civil rights activist and even protested segregation in the schools and in university housing. While Hillary Clinton has a history of backing bills that oppress the poorest of the poor and, in many cases, black families that need help, Bernie Sanders was busy standing up for their rights

[Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images]