Democratic contenders link arms in MLK Jr. Day march
COLUMBIA, S.C. >> Democratic presidential candidates hit pause on their recent feuds Monday as they walked shoulder to shoulder through the streets of South Carolina’s capital city to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and rally around their push to defeat President Donald Trump in November.
The truce was illustrated when Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren shook hands at Zion Baptist Church, then linked arms as they marched with the other candidates later in the morning. It was a gesture that didn’t materialize last week on a debate stage where the leading progressive candidates sparred over whether Sanders once privately said a woman couldn’t be president. Warren declined to shake Sanders’ outstretched hand after the debate.
“This is THE handshake,” said presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii.
From there, the candidates marched to the Statehouse, a building steeped in the history of South Carolina’s racial struggles.
For a few hours at least, the squabbling among the White House hopefuls over who is best positioned to defeat Trump gave way to a united condemnation of how they perceive he has handled America’s racial divide. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said there aren’t “‘many sides’ to blame when one side is the Ku Klux Klan,” referencing Trump’s comments following a deadly 2017 clash between white supremacists and anti-racist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has said he decided to run in 2020 following the violence in Charlottesville, said Trump has “given oxygen” to racism. Warren pledged to work toward what she characterized as a more tolerant society, noting “America is ready to move past this dark moment of Donald Trump.” Sanders encouraged the crowd to follow King’s legacy and “stand together.”
“Let us go forward and complete the journey,” he added.
In his rally speech, California businessman Tom Steyer referenced the tension between Warren and Sanders while dropping a reference in a previous debate to Democratic rival Pete Buttigieg’s high-dollar fundraisers.
“This is not the time for the people who are running with each other to bicker with each other or complain. It’s not a time for wine caves and old stories and old videos,” he said. “This is a time where we have a job: Beat Mr. Trump.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the lone remaining black candidate in the race, said progress made during the Civil Rights Movement has been stymied by Trump.
“We can’t go from hope and change to fear and settle for that,” he said.
Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, marched and attended a prayer service in South Carolina but left for Iowa before the speaking program began.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C, on Monday afternoon, pausing in front of the monument and the wreaths to pay their respects.
In the closing days before the first votes are cast in the 2020 Democratic presidential contest, the party’s leading hopefuls split their time between the critical early voting states of South Carolina and Iowa at events celebrating King. While Iowa and New Hampshire Democrats vote first for their nominee, South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary is a crucial proving ground for a candidate’s mettle with black voters.