Sanders Press Release: "Hillary Clinton resorted to dog whistle politics and dehumanizing language."

[californiabernin]

PRESS RELEASE
Sanders Voted for 1994 Crime Bill to Support Assault Weapons Ban, Violence Against Women Provisions
FEBRUARY 25, 2016

FLINT, Mich. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager on Thursday reiterated the senator’s reasoning for voting in favor of the Clinton administration’s 1994 Crime Bill despite serious reservations. The House version of the bill included a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons. Sanders had supported the ban since 1988. The conference committee version included not only the assault weapons ban but also the Violence Against Women Act provisions. Sanders supported these efforts to protect women.

In Sanders’ statement at the time, he criticized the mass incarceration and death penalty provisions in the bill, saying:

“…it is also my view that through the neglect of our Government and through a grossly irrational set of priorities, we are dooming tens of millions of young people to a future of bitterness, misery, hopelessness, drugs, crime, and violence.

And Mr. Speaker, all the jails in the world, and we already imprison more people per capita than any other country, and all of the executions in the world, will not make that situation right. We can either educate or electrocute. We can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we can build more jails.

Mr. Speaker, let us create a society of hope and compassion, not one of hate and vengeance.”

During consideration of the bill, Sanders voted six times to weaken or eliminate the death penalty provisions and voted separately against creating new mandatory minimums. Then-First Lady Hillary Clinton spoke strongly in favor of increased incarceration, labeling at risk youth as “super-predators” who had to be “brought to heel.”

“When this so-called crime bill was being considered, Bernie Sanders criticized its harsh incarceration and death penalty provisions,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager. “Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, resorted to dog whistle politics and dehumanizing language. Bernie was right then and he’s right now. We need to invest in those communities that have been neglected in this country. Poor communities – more often than not, communities of color – deserve the same opportunities and education that other communities have. Bernie Sanders has always known jails and incarceration are not the answer. Nor is heated rhetoric against young people of any race. You can’t throw vulnerable people under the bus just because it’s politically expedient.”

https://berniesanders.com/press-release/sanders-voted-for-1994-crime-bill-to-support-assault-weapons-ban-violence-against-women-provisions/

#whichhillary

[questionseverything]

1. here is an important op about the super predator remark

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511339737

[CorporatistNation]

2. THIS Cannot Be Allowed To Fade! Likewise... We Want Those TRANSCRIPTS AS WELL!

Enough obfuscation and pseudo-inevitability, experienced nonsense...

[jwirr]

12. An absolute must read.

[Jefferson23]

3. I'm very happy to hear Bernie make this clear and at the same time I will

say this is not news, not about Clinton. The black American public already
knows her history, better than most people.

The firewall Bernie needs to break through is the Obama firewall. Which
is a more complicated relationship, imo.

[Babel_17]

5. Great point

Maybe the right way to approach this is to not think of the relationship with Obama as a firewall.

There are several reasons that people voted for President Obama that are similar to the reasons people support Senator Sanders. It couldn't hurt to remind people that like Obama wasn't, Sanders also isn't a member of a lot of the insider groups. Like Obama, Sanders is here in part because of a groundswell pushing him up, and forward.

Like Obama, Sanders understands building coalitions with people on the ground. Sanders looks to be a transformative President like Obama, and to bring back to the forefront the issues that the Republicans refused to deal with.

With Sanders, we'll have someone who'll want to build on his accomplishments, and not bargain them away as a matter of triangulation.

[Jefferson23]

8. I don't disagree with you on anything you have stated. What I am referring to is

an impression I have based on other variables and not meant to suggest
there is only one reason nor a main reason. But a collective sense of
factors to include pride and also how Obama was treated not only by
the right wing but the left as well. Perception is reality and how deep
that rests, I can't say..but I do believe it is real and an obstacle for
Sanders. I don't have any sense of percentages, either. For some,
Clinton is a proxy vote for his legacy despite her and her husbands
horrific history.

[Babel_17]

10. Yup, it is what is, it's a perception, and a feeling

Can't beat those, but one can put ones self out there in the best possible light. The voters get to choose who'll they'll stand with.

Sanders can say "walk with me", and present it as a choice to make.

[Jefferson23]

11. Yes and I would like very much to hear him ask each community he visits how they

feel about the things he has said about Obama that Clinton has brought up including the statements
he made about the primary challenge. I think it brings about a personal dialogue/relationship that does
not include Clinton nor Obama.

[Uncle Joe]

4. One of Bernie's speeches on the 1994 crime bill

Thanks for the thread, californiabernin.

[libtodeath]

6. Please consider posting this as its own thread to show how true to princple Bernie has always been.

[Uncle Joe]

7. It's done.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511340079

[George II]

9. Does Sanders forget these facts?

Bernie Sanders voted FOR the 1994 Crime Bill

Hillary Clinton did NOT vote for the 1994 Crime Bill

Any amount of "reasoning" will not change the fact that he's criticizing Hillary Clinton for a bill that she didn't even vote for but he did.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Did you forget these facts? Hillary PROMOTED it but couldn't vote as she wasn't in the Congress,

Bill Clinton signed it, Bernie tried repeatedly to improve the bill but he was only one Congressperson in a house of 435 members.

Hillary used dog whistle politics while Bernie argued against the overreach of the bill, but voted for it because of the Violence Against Women Act and the ban on assault weapons.

Had Bernie voted against the bill, I have no doubt many would be criticizing him for not standing up to protect women and for promoting assault weapons on the street.

[George II]

15. Bill Clinton vetoed the bill twice.

[Uncle Joe]

17. Bill signed the final product.

[Jitter65]

31. Hillary said herself that she promoted it because there were some parts she agreed with

and some part she did not agree with. But I guess that pass can only go to Bernie. It is ridiculous to believe that the same portions of the bill that Sanders now says he agreed with were not the same reasons Hillary supported it...there were significant women's issues and weapons issues in that bill that most Democrats wanted to see passed.

The lust to smear Hillary is getting to be unbearable here.

[Uncle Joe]

32. Hillary used racist dog whistle language, that's the difference. n/t

[angstlessk]

14. DUH!No No No No

Hillary Clinton COULD NOT vote for it...she had NO vote...she was not a Senator at the time

Did I say DUH?

[George II]

16. Exactly my point. So how can Sanders today, who voted for it himself, blame Hillary Clinton?

[Uncle Joe]

18. Because Hillary promoted it using racist dog whistle politics.

[angstlessk]

20. Sanders voted for PORTIONS of the bill..I am sure if it was piecemeal

he would have voted against most of it...but it was wrapped in MANY THINGS he was against.

Did you see THIS video?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511340079

[DhhD]

21. What criticism did he make of Hillary Clinton? He voted for changes that she did not approve of?

Clinton was using women of dead sons and daughters just the other day in redirecting her belief in supremacy over predators. Which generation was she hunting? Redirecting thinking to a deferred task is a form of brainwashing, in my opinion. The reply above, #9 is a redirect.

[George II]

22. Didn't you read the Press Release in the OP?

[mwooldri]

23. Congress loves bundling.

Putting together a number of separate measures into one bill. Kinda forces legislators to vote for it, even though there are bits they don't like.

Plus Hillary was an active First Lady - like Eleanor Roosevelt in some ways.

[passiveporcupine]

26. And the reason he voted for this and other questionable bills

Is because that is how congress works. it is bipartisan, especially on bills affecting budgets, and this was a bill that funded things Bernie really wanted to support. He hadn't seen the affects of the bill yet, on incarceration, but he was vocally against those portions of the bill that he completely disagreed with. And he has explained this...and any rational and intelligent adult understands this...sometime to get what you want in congress you have to take some of what you don't want.

It's a shame that congress has to work that way, but because we have to represent both sides in congress, we have to give and take...especially on budget issues.

So how do we fix this? Bernie has told us how. We need to change congress to a more representative group, who supports the people, not just the wealthy and corporations. And we need to build a strong congress that will fight for social policies that will help strengthen our country. And the only way to do this is to fight to get the right people in congress, to take us where we want to go. And part of that battle is getting money out of politics, so those in congress don't have to choose between being elected and doing what's right for the people.

It is OUR job to get good progressives voted in to replace the people who are willing to accept the status quo now. That means electing a president like Bernie and voting more progressives into congress and local offices.

It's our job. A president cannot do it alone.

[George II]

33. That's fine, and in isolated cases that makes sense to me. But...

...two points:

First, has anyone given similar credit to Bill Clinton for signing bills, or does he just get "blamed" for doing so? Remember, he vetoed the first two versions of the bill. Why not use the same assessment criteria for why he signed it?

Second, it seems that Sanders uses the "obscure aspect of a bill" excuse more often than most - he says it about bad bills that he voted for and good bills that he voted against.

He's done it each and every time he voted against the several versions of the Brady bill, why he voted for the bill under discussion here, and several other key bills that were voted for/against.

[passiveporcupine]

41. Well, think about it.

I have blamed Hillary for her language and alarmism to get people to accept the bill. It was obvious that the parts of the bill that Bernie did not like, Bill and Hillary were pushing...so, there's that!

Can you deny that Bill and Hillary were backing the more money for prisons and tough on crime parts of the bill?

[George II]

42. In that case, apparently Sanders succumbed to her "language and alarmism", because he accepted it.

[passiveporcupine]

43. Sorry...he addressed his issues with it at the same time he voted for it

I think you have your blinders on. To think his voting for it for the good stuff, while protesting the bad stuff is the same as the Clinton's advertising and promoting the bad stuff, is just asinine.

[George II]

44. But he voted for it and he's now (20+ years later) he's blaming Hillary Clinton, who didn't.

[passiveporcupine]

46. She was not a senator at the time. She could'nt vote for it.

Idiotic point number one.

Point number two
Hillary strongly promoted it. Her speech claiming that young black people were predators speaks for itself. Yeah...disavow that one. I dare you.

[passiveporcupine]

47. Wrong, and you know it.

Please tell me after all the truth that has been posted here, you are not trying to push this lie.

He protested against this part of it. He only signed it for the parts of the bill that would help women and social programs (getting 9 billion buxks for good things).

We've gone over and over this. You are being deliberately obtuse.

No more playing with trolls. I'm done here.

[George II]

48. No, I don't "know it". It's not a lie, and either a legislator votes for or against a bill, period.

[passiveporcupine]

51. well then, we have nothing to talk about

because you will believe anything you "want" to believe.

[George II]

53. No, I believe in what is true.

[passiveporcupine]

45. here is another point

Clinton apologized for signing the crime bill, and here is one reason:

“We have too many people in prison. And we wound up spending — putting so many people in prison that there wasn’t enough money left to educate them, train them for new jobs and increase the chances when they came out that they could live productive lives.”

But WTF? The crime bill cut prisoner education.

[George II]

49. "The crime bill cut prisoner education." Didn't Sanders know that when he voted for it?

[passiveporcupine]

52. We are talking about Clinton's statement here, not Sanders.

Nice deflection. Is that all you've got?

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

39. Great points!

The pragmatism of politics is annoying and confusing. We have to judge a lot by intent, and Bernie's intent is to take power from the elites, Hillary's, not so much.

[magical thyme]

19. thank you for posting this

I knew the horrible crime bill was wrapped in other, desirable, legislation to obtain votes it would otherwise not obtain. I couldn't remember which.

[Buzz Clik]

24. That grinding sound is Sanders scraping the gutter

Again, Sanders has more and more been showing his true colors.

[passiveporcupine]

27. I guess you would feel that way if what he says is true

and so incriminating for Hillary. It would embarrass me too.

[passiveporcupine]

36. He hasn't told a lie

I've seen the video of her words. He's absolutely correct, and correct to call her on it, to expose her part in the incarceration of blacks.

[Buzz Clik]

37. please

He lies daily. It's simpler to pretend when one's support for him depends upon him being "different." He isn't.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

38. Daily? Really? Ooooh. You should start a blog to report on that.

Feel free to make things up. Otherwise, you'll be short on content.

[Major Hogwash]

25. The Assault Weapons Ban passed in 1994. Biden said he was the author of that bill.

It was all a part of the larger omnibus bill, the 1994 Crime Bill, that was passed by Congress and signed in to law.
So, I don't see what the kerfuffle is over Sanders supporting it.

[passiveporcupine]

28. Because it's their only weapon

To try to make Sanders look like he did not care about blacks.

[Major Hogwash]

30. Well, what on earth does that mean?

I don't know. Mr Wentworth just told me to come in here and say that there was trouble at the mill, that's all - I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.


Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!

Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our four...no... amongst our weapons.... amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

[djean111]

29. The kerfluffle is that they are trying to smear Sanders. That's all this is.

Hillary putting being an active first lady on her resume? Then accept the blame. She shills for things like the TPP and then we are told, oh, she is only Obama's mouthpiece. If she is just a passive and obedient observer, her resume is really quite thin.

[berniesandero]

34. thanks californiabernin

[Bill USA]

40. can't his campaign staff come up with their own metaphors? "dog whistle"..... Jeez!

[MrMickeysMom]

50. Which Hillary, indeed