Mike Bloomberg is not the only Democrat in the 2020 presidential race who is carrying "racial baggage," but the others are attacking the former New York City mayor to dodge tough questions about their own records, Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday.
"I want to know what Bernie [Sanders] is going to say about the vote he did for the [1994] crime bill, where people went to jail," Sharpton told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "No matter his reason for voting for it, it was a law that incarcerated people. Joe Biden wrote it."
Meanwhile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is facing questions about her prosecution of a black teenager.
A new investigation into the 17-year-old case uncovered several inconsistencies that raised questions about if police railroaded the teen, 16, concerning the death of an 11-year-old girl, who was hit by a stray bullet.
"All of them have racial baggage," Sharpton said. "We can reconcile but let's recognize that."
Bloomberg has come under fire for his past stance on "stop and frisk" policies that targeted members of minority communities.
The outcry about Bloomberg comes after a 2015 audio clip surfaced last week of Bloomberg defending the policy, saying that the way to get guns "out of kids' hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them."
He also claimed 95% of murders fit a pattern of being committed by "male, minorities, 16-25."
He has apologized, but Sharpton said that is not enough.
Instead, Bloomberg must create a "criminal justice initiative" to help those in the community who were scarred by stop and frisk.
Show co-host Mika Brzezinski argued the other candidates have been participating in debates and primaries and answering questions, but Bloomberg has been sitting out the first four primary races.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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