Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told CNN on Sunday that he doesn’t think he needs to apologize to the Black Lives Matter movement after members of the group forced him offstage at a campaign stop in Seattle. But one of his staffers already did so.
In an email obtained by BuzzFeed news, Sanders’ African-American outreach director, Marcus Ferrell, told Black Lives Matter leadership that he was sorry “it took our campaign so long to officially reach out,” and asked to kick off a formal dialogue. Sanders told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” that the email was sent “without my knowledge” and that his campaign was going to be working “with all groups.”
Sanders has come under fire from Black Lives Matter activists who say he isn’t paying enough attention to issues important to the black community, like police reform. At last week’s campaign stop in Seattle, Marissa Janae Johnson, one of the co-founders of the group’s local chapter, accused Sanders of espousing a “white supremacist liberalism.”
Sanders clarified on “Meet the Press” that he wanted to reach out to a wide coalition of liberal groups, including Latinos, seniors, and union members, but that he deeply cared about black issues.
“Let me be very clear: the issue that they’re raising is a very, very important one. And there’s no candidate for president that would be stronger in fighting against institutional racism and, by the way, reforming a broken criminal justice system.”
Phony right-wing outrage from the Faux noise machine that Sanders hates blacks in 3…2…1…
Actually the group that shouted him off stage needs to apologize to him. Flaming a-holes.
Of course he doesn’t have to apologize. You do that when you’ve harmed someone and he hasn’t. BLM can always vote for the FOX candidates and avoid Senator Sanders completely. If the BLM folks want to buy into the notion that Sanders or Clinton are racists bigots that don’t care about them they can have at it. If they’re so fucking misguided ( and they seem to be ) they can be played like that fuck 'em. Right now I care about black lives but don’t give a shit about BLM. And anyone can do that.
Damn right you don’t need to apologize, Bernie.
Storming a stage and stealing the microphone from a presidential candidate…this gives BLM a good name? They must be taking stage etiquette advice from Kanye West.
Asshats.
I think this is getting out of control now. I do think Bernie had a blind spot concerning racial matters. My charitable reading on it is that being Senator in a state without a lot of urban areas and a very small black population, some matters that concern that group were not of immediate concern to his constituency. I was fine with him being confronted at Netroots Nation but the continued piling on and what happened in Seattle has turned me off. I was there in the streets for weeks after the Ferguson non- indictment, so I’m familiar with the BLM movement. The thing is, now that the nation’s attention has been gotten, what do we want? Do we want catharsis? An extended primal scream? I’m not here for that.
There are two bills introduced by John Conyers that I never hear the “leaders” of the movement talk about would be a great start to getting things turned around. Rather than getting a one day sensationalist news story for storming Bernie’s speeches and the sniping with his campaign, the movement should have organized to have us at every town hall this summer pointedly asking their congressperson whether they would vote for this bill or not- and why. You know, like the tea party did to the Dems in August of 2010. But it seems like right now either there is a lack of organization or people are more interested in catharsis than actual change. No matter which it is, the movement will die on the vine if there isn’t a legislative aspect to it.
Despite my criticisms, I support the movement and am heavily invested in it succeeding. I hope that better tactics are employed in the future.