Al Sharpton is encouraging voters to hold all the Democratic presidential candidates accountable for their race-related missteps.
Mike Bloomberg has been embroiled in controversy since the public was reminded of comments he has made regarding stop-and-frisk policing during his tenure as New York mayor and crime in minority communities. During a Feb. 17 appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski noted Sharpton extended some grace to Bloomberg during a closing segment on his own MSNBC show. She went on to ask what Bloomberg could do to atone for his “rough” comments regarding race.
Sharpton argued Bloomberg should make a concerted effort to right his wrongs, and apologies were not enough to make up for his mistakes.
“There ought to be some effort on his past, on his part, rather, to say, and, therefore, I want to try and repair the damages done by this,” he told Brzezinski. “Some kind of criminal justice initiative, some kind of effort for those that were scarred.”
Last week, Bloomberg was criticized for an 2015 interview during which he defended stop-and-frisk by claiming people of color commit the most crime. This week, the billionaire former mayor of New York’s words came back to haunt him again in the form of a resurfaced 2011 interview with “PBS Newshour.”
“There’s this enormous cohort of black and Latino males aged, let’s say, 16 to 25 that don’t have jobs, don’t have any prospects, don’t know how to find jobs, don’t know that the — what their skill sets are, don’t know how to behave in the workplace, where they have to work collaboratively and collectively,” Bloomberg said. He was on the show to promote his Young Men’s Initiative, a project designed to improve job prospects for young marginalized men. Bloomberg has also been criticized for his defense of redlining and sexism at his eponymous media company.
Sharpton noted there have been instances when other Democratic presidential candidates have fumbled during interactions with the Black community.
“I also, Mika, don’t want to see him as a leaf that the other candidates dump some of their racial baggage,” Sharpton said. “And that’s why I said in my closing last night I want to know what Bernie’s [Democratic frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders] gonna say about the vote he did for the Crime Bill where people went to jail on the Crime Bill. No matter his reason for voting for it, it was a law that incarcerated people.”
Sharpton added, “Joe Biden wrote it. Amy Klobuchar, with a 16-year-old that many feel should have never gone to jail that she prosecuted in Minnesota. So I don’t want them to attack Bloomberg to cover the fact that all of them have racial baggage.”
The law he is referring to is the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, a 1994 law co-written by former Vice President Joe Biden during his tenure as leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The law was supposed to facilitate a crackdown on violent crime, but its critics believe it contributed to mass incarceration of Black people and other nonwhite citizens. The law increased federal sentences for certain crimes and increased funding for 100,000 cops and the construction of new prisons.
Minnesota Sen. Klobuchar is a former top prosecutor in Minneapolis, and a case she led against a then-16-year-old Black boy is under renewed scrutiny since her presidential candidacy. In a case recently brought back to light by a recent Associated Press investigation, Myron Burrell was sentenced to life in prison for a shooting death despite a lack of physical evidence against him and a questionable identification from the chief prosecution witness. During a recent exchange with “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin, Klobuchar admitted the case needs to be reviewed.
Despite his questionable track record, Bloomberg has been endorsed by prominent Black public figures. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a former Bloomberg critic, endorsed the former mayor and asserted he was “just trying to save lives,” according to USA Today. Other endorsements include those of Reps. Lucy McBath, Bobby Rush and Stacey Plaskett.
