Actor, writer and producer Spike Lee has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in a new radio ad, just days before Sanders is hoping to attract black voters in the South Carolina primary.
“Wake up, South Carolina! This is your dude, Spike Lee,” the 58-year-old Lee says in the 60-second spot slated to run in South Carolina, before echoing Sanders’ well-known rhetoric about the system being rigged against everyday Americans.
“And you know that I know that you know that the system is rigged! And for too long we’ve given our votes to corporate puppets. Sold the okie doke. Ninety-nine percent of Americans were hurt by the Great Recession of 2008, and many are still recovering.”
“That’s why I am officially endorsing my brother, Bernie Sanders. Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. Which means he’s not on the tape, and when Bernie get’s into the White House, he will do the right thing!” Lee continues, referencing his famous 1989 movie by the same name.
Lee also talks about and praises Sanders’ participation in the 1963 March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr. and arrest at the University of Chicago protesting segregation.
“He fought for wealth and education equality throughout his whole career. No flippin’, no floppin’. Enough talk. Time for action. Hey, Bernie from Brooklyn, talk to the folks,” Lee says, before the Vermont senator says he has endorsed the message.
The ad comes amid a fight between Sanders and Hillary Clinton for South Carolina, whose primary is on Saturday. In 2008, black voters made up 55 percent of Democratic voters in the Palmetto State.
So far in this battle for the nomination, the demographic has gone for Clinton.
