ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign enlisted the support of black Democrats on Friday to undermine Bernie Sanders’ push to claim a piece of President Barack Obama’s legacy, arguing she is the rightful heir to the nation’s first black president.
Clinton sought solidarity with Obama at every turn during Thursday’s debate in Milwaukee, referring to herself as a “staunch supporter” of his health care law and praising him as a role model on race relations. Clinton ended the debate by criticizing Sanders for saying in an interview with MSNBC that Obama had failed the “presidential leadership test.”
By Friday, as Clinton traveled to a black community in South Carolina, her African-American allies in Congress seized upon comments the Vermont senator made at the debate insinuating that race relations would “absolutely” be better under a future Sanders administration.
One questioned the allegiances of Sanders, who is the longest serving independent in congressional history but running for president as a Democrat.
“He was never a Democrat. He is only a Democrat for convenience,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in an interview with The Associated Press. He accused Sanders of “dismissive and disrespectful behavior toward the president.”