Bill Clinton turnt all the way up at a recent Philadelphia pep rally for his wife and presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. He might have just lost the Black vote for her too.

The aspiring First Husband got so excited that, when he was interrupted by protesters, he responded by criticizing the very people Ms. Clinton needs votes from (not that she hasn’t done her fair share of alienating Black voters).

He told the crowd that the Black Lives Matter movement “maybe” thought drug dealers who got ” thirteen-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them back out onto the streets to murder other African American children” were good citizens but Hillary Clinton didn’t. He also told the protesters directly,  “you are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter. Tell the truth.”

These claims were all in response to criticisms about Ms. Clinton’s support for the 1994 Crime Bill. And, while the audience seemed to appreciate Mr. Clinton’s candor and ire for Black protesters in the crowd, it remains to be seen how voters will respond to these marginalizing and exclusionary messages from the leading Democratic nominee’s spouse and hype-man.

Watch the snippet of the confrontation below:

Watch the full speech below:

Photo credit: Youtube

Author

  • Jenn M. Jackson was born and raised in East Oakland, California, a fact which motivates her writing and academic ambitions. She is a scholar, educator, and writer whose writing addresses Black Politics and civil and public life for young Black people with a focus on policing and surveillance. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Water Cooler Convos, a culture platform for Black millennials. Her writing has been featured in Washington Post, BITCH Magazine, Marie Claire, EBONY, The Root, Daily Dot, The Independent, and many others. Jackson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago studying American Politics with a focus on political participation and engagement, public opinion and social movements. For more about her, tweet her at @JennMJack or visit her website at jennmjackson.com.