Harris leads the charge on Trump and event organizers
COLUMBIA, S.C. >> One day after President Donald Trump claimed he had done more for black voters than President Barack Obama’s administration had, several Democratic presidential candidates spoke at the same historically black college Saturday and issued a blistering rebuke of both the president and the event’s organizers — whom they accused of giving Trump an undeserved platform.
Sen. Kamala Harris of California led the charge at Benedict College and was set to boycott the event altogether until the group that had invited Trump was removed as a sponsor. Other candidates, such as Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, said the president had a history of racist demagoguery that outweighed any recent efforts at criminal justice reform, including the First Step Act that he signed into law last year.
The First Step Act helped thousands of federal inmates secure early release under new sentencing guidelines, but Democrats were united in framing it as an insufficient measure. They called for more structural reforms to the criminal justice system and took aim at Trump himself, who has made exploitation of racial grievance a trademark of his political brand.
“I find it hypocritical of him to tout whatever advances have been made in the First Step Act given his history,” Harris said. “The hypocrisy is deafening.”
In the Democratic primary, black voters play a key role in determining the party’s nominee, and South Carolina specifically will play a key role in choosing the next Democratic standard-bearer. The state votes fourth in the nomination process and has a Democratic electorate that has more than 60% black voters.
Buttigieg said the president had inflamed racism and that it must be rooted out from the country’s core. On Saturday morning, he announced a new criminal justice plan to debut at the forum that called for reducing the incarcerated population nationwide by 50% and diversifying the judiciary, among other goals.
Saturday marked the second day of the Second Step Presidential Justice Forum.