A top 2020 campaign official for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized fellow White House hopeful Joe Biden on Thursday, accusing the former vice president of largely riding on former President Obama’s legacy, particularly when it comes to the support of African-American voters.
“No one should be able to ride the coattails of the first African-American president,” Nina Turner, co-chairwoman of Sanders’s presidential campaign, said on Hill.TV, referring to Biden.
“You need to earn the black vote every single time that you run,” she added.
The Biden campaign didn’t immediately respond to Hill.TV’s request for comment.
Black voters are considered a crucial Democratic voting bloc, particularly in states like South Carolina where they make up a significant proportion of the electorate.
Biden maintains a strong lead in South Carolina, at 35 percent support in the RealClearPolitics average. He’s followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 16.3 percent and Sanders at 12.8 percent. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) is in fourth place at 6.5 percent.
Turner on Thursday attributed Biden’s strong support within the African-American community, particularly among older black voters to “short memories,” and “not a true understanding of the history,” alluding to Biden’s criminal justice record.
“In the African-American community, especially among older voters, is a reverence for President Barack Obama and this whole notion that if Vice President Biden was good enough for President Obama, he should be good enough for us,” she said.
Turner also lamented that black voters are often overlooked unless it’s a presidential election cycle, calling it a “wake up call” for the community as a whole, but maintained that Sanders is “not taking anything for granted.”
“We are out there knocking [on] doors, making the phone calls, the senator himself has come to that state,” she told Hill.TV, citing Sanders’s recent trip to South Carolina over the weekend.
—Tess Bonn
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