Former Vice President Joe Biden said Friday he doesn’t think anybody should go to jail for any drug crime.
“The plan I have is my manifesto for black Americans and particularly the portion of it that relates to how, in fact, we’re gonna deal with the prison system,” Biden told The Breakfast Club’s Charlamagne Tha God. “If you are in prison, if you are convicted of a crime — no one should be going to jail for drug crime. Period. Nobody. Nobody. No matter what the crime, particularly marijuana, which makes no sense for people to go to jail.”
Biden has been criticized by some in the black community for his involvement in the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, also known as the “crime bill,” which led to accelerated incarceration rates. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee insisted during the interview that he opposed aspects of that legislation and said Hillary Clinton was wrong to apologize for it during the 2016 election cycle.
“She was wrong. What happened was — that wasn’t the crime bill, it was the drug legislation. It was their institution of mandatory minimums, which I opposed,” Biden said.
The interview, which got heated at times, also touched on Biden’s ability to attract black voters, with the former Delaware senator touting the black support he received in South Carolina, Charlamagne Tha God’s home state.
“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden said.
Charlamagne Tha God replied, “It don’t have nothing to do with Trump, it has to do with the fact — I want something for my community.”
The Trump campaign responded to Biden’s statement, calling it “racist and dehumanizing.”
