Trump claims Black Americans won’t vote for Joe Biden due to crime bill past
The president took jabs at Joe Biden, who is leading the pack among 2020 Democratic candidates, saying the 1994 crime bill, which he supported would hinder him
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Is President Trump more popular with Black voters than Joe Biden? Well apparently, he thinks so.
According to the New York Post, on Saturday, Trump concluded his four-day trip to Japan, by making some especially bold declarations about the former Vice President and his relationship with African American voters.
“Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected. In particular, African Americans will not be ble [sic] to vote for you,” Trump said in a since-deleted tweet ahead of his return to Washington D.C. “I, on the other hand, was responsible for Criminal Justice Reform, which had tremendous support, and helped fix the bad 1994 Bill!”
READ MORE: Biden, moving into full campaign swing, gears up to court Black vote
“Super Predator was the term associated with the 1994 Crime Bill that Sleepy Joe Biden was so heavily involved in passing,” he continued in a second tweet. “That was a dark period in American History, but has Sleepy Joe apologized? No!”
Biden originally wrote the bill when he was a senator in Delaware and it was then was passed by Congress with bipartisan support — 235-195 in the House and 61-38 in the Senate — and signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.
WILL ’94 CRIME BILL VOTE HAUNT BIDEN? Pres. Trump claims African Americans will not vote for former Vice President Joe Biden because he supported a 1994 crime bill that increased racial inequality in the justice system — the co-hosts discuss. https://t.co/f8u2wc159S pic.twitter.com/MwQJNrG9oo
— The View (@TheView) May 28, 2019
While the bill included a federal ban on assault weapons, and expanded the federal death penalty and the Violence Against Women Act, among other things, critics point out it actually increased penalties for federal crimes, led to prison populations to blowing up and ultimately resulted in the mass incarceration of Black Americans on drug charges.
READ MORE: Bill Clinton admits to black churchgoers that 1994 crime bill ‘overdid it’
In a time where prison reform is a hot topic being championed by politicians and celebrities alike, this piece of legislation is now haunting the Democratic presidential front runner, with many demanding he answer for his actions.
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders both voted for the 1994 crime bill.
And Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in the @NYDailyNews in 1989 condemning “bands of wild criminals” amidst a spike in violent crime during the 80s and early 90s.
?? https://t.co/MLDzAz9YYr https://t.co/upAeObTooW
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) May 27, 2019
Biden is currently the strong frontrunner among 2020 Democratic candidates, according to RealClearPolitics. He leads the back with 34.7 percentage points with closest competitor Sen. Bernie Sanders at 17.7.
