A top adviser to Joe Biden’s campaign rebuked Michael Bloomberg for newly surfaced audio in which he strongly advocated support for “stop-and-frisk” policies.
Symone Sanders was asked on Tuesday to react to a 2015 speech the former New York City mayor gave at the Aspen Institute in which he acknowledged that the policy disproportionately affected minorities while also defending it.
“I think it’s sad and it’s despicable, Ed, and I think it’s something that voters will have to look to. I think this thing will be up to the voters. The reality is that criminal justice reform is an important issue,” Sanders, who is black, said during a Fox News interview with anchor Ed Henry.
“So, important actually that President Trump has weighed in with the First Step Act,” Sanders continued. “I think that Vice President Biden has a plan that really builds on all of the gains that have been made over these last couple years when it comes to criminal justice. It takes a dynamic approach and a dynamic look. It puts juvenile justice front and center.”
[Opinion: Michael Bloomberg’s comments on racial profiling are a problem for the Democratic Party]
In the audio, Bloomberg argued that, “95% of murders — murderers and murder victims — fit one M.O. You can just take a description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops,” Bloomberg stated. “They are male, minorities, 16 to 25.”
“The way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them … And then they start … ‘Oh, I don’t want to get caught,’ so they don’t bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home,” he said.
Audio of @MikeBloomberg’s 2015 @AspenInstitute speech where he explains that “you can just Xerox (copy)” the description of male, minorities 16-25 and hand to cops.
Bloomberg had video of speech blocked.
Perhaps because of the problematic explanation he gives for #StopAndFrisk pic.twitter.com/Fm0YCi4ZRy
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) February 10, 2020
Bloomberg apologized for his defense of “stop-and-frisk” policies in November prior to entering the 2020 presidential race.
Henry asked Sanders if the apology was “good enough.”
She answered, “You will have to ask the voters, Ed.”
