Bill Clinton: ‘Black Lives Matter’ Protesters Are Defending Murderers and Drug Dealers (VIDEO)

While Bill Clinton was campaigning for his wife in Philadelphia, Black Lives Matter activists interrupted his speech. Clinton insulted them without blinking.

During the speech, the protesters, who were calling attention to Bill Clinton’s record of dismantling the welfare system and passing the 1994 crime bill, can be heard faintly shouting in the background as Clinton speaks to the crowd of several hundred. Rather than listening to them, as Bernie Sanders did when confronted by Black Lives Matter in Seattle, the former president ironically chided the protesters for not listening to him.

“They don’t wanna listen to me,” Clinton said with a smirk. “You will never learn anything when you’re talking.”

In the video below, the former president bizarrely accuses the activists of supporting murderous gang members in a full-throated defense of his crime bill. We’re not sure Americans have ever seen this side of Bill Clinton, even during the worst of 2008. Clinton’s attack was essentially repeating the thoroughly debunked right-wing talking point of “black-on-black crime.”

As the protesters continued to demonstrate in the back of the room, Clinton even went so far as to drive a wedge between them and U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a Clinton surrogate and civil rights movement veteran.

“You can trust them, or Congressman John Lewis, the last remaining hero of the civil rights movement,” Clinton said, apparently oblivious to the fact that Black Lives Matter has been called the “new civil rights movement” by prominent publications like The Guardian and National Public Radio.

Bill Clinton’s insensitive remarks are reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for the presidency, when Harlem residents punished Clinton at the polls, claiming her husband was the face of gentrification in the historically black neighborhood. As the New York Times reported, between 2002, when Clinton set up shop in the neighborhood, and 2006, when Clinton was elected to her second U.S. Senate term, approximately 75 black-owned businesses had been forced to relocate due to gentrification.

“I met him and shook his hand, and I felt here was a white man who would come and help revitalize the neighborhood,” Beamon Highsmith told the Times. “But hell, he didn’t change it for us. He changed it for other people.”

Law professor and activist Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, famously called out the Clintons for their support of policies that increased black poverty and black incarceration rates in the nineties. The facts bear out Alexander’s argument, as Clinton imprisoned more black Americans during his two terms than even Republican hero Ronald Reagan.

“Clinton championed the idea of a federal “three strikes” law in his 1994 State of the Union address and, months later, signed a $30 billion crime bill that created dozens of new federal capital crimes, mandated life sentences for some three-time offenders, and authorized more than $16 billion for state prison grants and the expansion of police forces. The legislation was hailed by mainstream-media outlets as a victory for the Democrats, who “were able to wrest the crime issue from the Republicans and make it their own.”

Hillary Clinton is currently leading by approximately ten points in New York, according to RealClearPolitics. However, Clinton led by more than double that figure a month ago, suggesting Sanders is narrowing that gap as the primary approaches. Clinton’s lead in Pennsylvania has also been destroyed, with Clinton’s commanding lead dropping from 22 points to a mere 6-point margin according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.

Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact Tom via email at tom.v.cahill@gmail.com. 

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