Hillary Clinton Says Bill Clinton’s Crime Bill Was A Mistake

“I just said that. There were some aspects of it that worked well, the violence against women provisions have worked well, for example,” Clinton said. “But other aspects of it were a mistake and I agree. That’s why I am focused and have a very comprehensive approach towards fixing the criminal justice system, going after systemic racism that stalks the justice system, ending private prisons and ending the incarceration of low-level offenders and I am committed to doing that.”

But the Violence Against Women Act was not what Hillary set out to tout on the campaign trail:

The Violence Against Women Act is what Sanders voted for and spoke for.

Its interesting to contrast Sander’s contemporaneous words with Clinton’s above:

Speaker, a society which neglects, which
oppresses and which disdains a very significant part of its
population–which leaves them hungry, impoverished, unemployed,
uneducated, and utterly without hope, will, through cause and effect,
create a population which is bitter, which is angry, which is violent,
and a society which is crime-ridden. This is the case in America, and
it is the case in countries throughout the world.
Mr. Speaker, how do we talk about the very serious crime problem in
America without mentioning that we have the highest rate of childhood
poverty in the industrialized world, by far, with 22 percent of our
children in poverty and 5 million who are hungry today? Do the Members
think maybe that might have some relationship to crime? How do we talk
about crime when this Congress is prepared, this year, to spend 11
times more for the military than for education; when 21 percent of our
kids drop out of high school; when a recent study told us that twice as
many young workers now earn poverty wages as 10 years ago; when the gap
between the rich and the poor is wider, and when the rate of poverty
continues to grow? Do the members think that might have some
relationship to crime?
Mr. Speaker, it is my firm belief that clearly, there are some people
in our society who are horribly violent, who are deeply sick and
sociopathic, and clearly these people must be put behind bars in order
to protect society from them. But 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.

Big bold brave words that bucked the fear-mongering and race-baiting used by so many at the time.

The initial bill that Sanders voted for didn’t contain an assault weapons ban. That was later added by the Senate.