Bill Clinton sought to move past a confrontation with black protesters while stumping for Hillary Clinton in New York City over the weekend, conceding amid stops in Harlem and Queens that the 1994 tough-on-crime bill he signed into law as president “overdid it” and threw too many non-violent offenders into lengthy prison sentences.
Clinton drew headlines last week while campaigning for his wife in Philadelphia, vigorously hitting back at activists who had arrived to protest about his record on criminal justice. Although he issued a semi-apology the following day, the incident cast a spotlight once more on how Clinton’s legacy has served, in some ways, as a double-edged sword for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid.
But while speaking at an event in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, on Sunday, Clinton proved that he remains a great asset for his wife’s campaign – blending obvious star quality and the ability to communicate almost willfully detailed policy arguments in a way that still keeps an audience hanging on his every word.
He also spoke in more nuanced terms of the 1994 crime bill, touting its benefits while acknowledging its unintended consequences, and highlighting Hillary Clinton’s own platform to reform the criminal justice system.
“We need prison reform,” Clinton told worshippers at the Abyssinian Baptist church in Harlem. “We overdid it and put too many young, non-violent offenders in jail for too long. The federal government can set an example.”
In later remarks before a few hundred people at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Clinton returned to discussion of the legislation he signed more than two decades ago, which helped lead to mass incarceration and the soaring prison population. But he also identified the ways in which it had improved safety by introducing an assault weapons ban, putting more police on the streets, and introducing community programs in urban areas that had “given young people something on the street to say ‘yes’ to other than gangs”.
It was a strikingly different tone from days earlier, when Clinton shouted down protesters from the Philly Coalition of Real Justice who had held up signs criticizing, among other things, Hillary Clinton’s use of the phrase “super-predator” while discussing her husband’s efforts to rein in drug gangs.
“You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter,” a fired-up Clinton told the demonstrators on Thursday. “Tell the truth!”
Clinton encountered swift backlash, and expressed regret at another campaign stop in Pennsylvania the following day, saying he had gotten carried away while defending his wife.
The moment was emblematic of the ways in which aspects of Clinton’s record are being relitigated by an evolving Democratic base, where rival Bernie Sanders has seized in particular on issues such as trade and Wall Street reform to attack Hillary Clinton as insufficiently progressive. Sanders has aggressively campaigned against the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed by Clinton despite opposition from labor groups in 1993, and Clinton’s repeal of Depression-era banking regulation known as Glass-Steagall.
Speaking in Harlem over the weekend, Sanders said Hillary Clinton owed Americans an apology for defending the use of the term “super-predators”. Clinton apologized for the language in February, and has repeatedly called for an end to mass incarceration while advocating a shift away from the same tough-on-crime policies supported by her husband.
Hillary Clinton has charted her own identity, rolling out a comprehensive Wall Street reform plan and opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiated under the Obama administration.
Political observers nonetheless wondered if her husband might remain a liability in an unexpectedly competitive Democratic primary. But Hillary Clinton’s campaign continues to view the former president, whose popularity continues to be borne out in polling, as an asset, who not only holds a strong record of spurring economic growth and job creation, but is also uniquely qualified to make the case that his wife is best prepared for the presidency.
Clinton made his debut on the campaign trail this cycle in January, stumping for his wife across the early states before largely enthusiastic audiences. Barring last week, he has mostly avoided the sort of controversy that in 2008 at times threatened to undermine Hillary Clinton’s campaign – most notably comments about Barack Obama in South Carolina perceived by many African Americans as having racial undertones.
The Clintons hold deep ties to the African American community, reflected in Hillary’s staggering support from black voters in recent primary contests against Sanders. In South Carolina alone, she won the support of nearly nine in 10 black voters.
Despite the controversy of 2008, Bill Clinton went on to become an important surrogate for Obama’s re-election in 2012, campaigning primarily on issues pertaining to the economy and jobs and memorably addressing the Democratic convention with a rousing speech in support of Obama’s health reforms.
On Sunday, Clinton claimed some credit for bringing jobs to Harlem, where he said the creation of an empowerment zone had seen unemployment fall from 24% to 8% by the time he left office.
He also toured the many ways in which Hillary would build upon the progress of the Obama administration, while touting her wide-ranging experience on the issues: from the battle for control of the supreme court; the Syrian refugee crisis destabilizing countries like Lebanon and Jordan; and the alienation felt by college graduates and white blue-collar workers about debt and jobs.
He said his wife’s program included shortening prison sentences and saving money which could be reinvested in education and training. And he said she was committed to jobs reform that would give people with criminal records a second chance rather than having to “check some darn box” that was a barrier to work.
Comparing Hillary with other candidates, he said “her jobs ideas are better” and told the audience in Hell’s Kitchen: “You will never have a chance to have a president that is a better change-maker – she’s the best at it I have ever seen.”
