Dem primaries

Sanders calls for more help for communities in need

by Harper Neidig 02/13/16 09:57 AM ET

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders focused on helping minority communities during a series of campaign events in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday.

“What I believe we should do is invest most heavily in those communities most in need,” he said at a forum hosted by Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, according to the Star Tribune.

{mosads}“Those are exactly the kinds of communities you invest in.”

However, he didn’t go as far as some in the audience hoped. According to the report, someone in the audience shouted, “We were promised reparations! We were told we were going to get it!”

Sanders and rival Hillary Clinton also appeared at the Democratic Farmer-Labor party’s Humphrey Mondale dinner, where they both made sought to pitch themselves as what the Democratic Party needed.

“I am a progressive who actually likes to make progress,” Clinton told the crowd of 4,000, in a shot at Sanders over what she believes are unrealistic promises from him.

“I am not a single-issue candidate and this is not a single-issue country! We need a president who can do all parts of the job on behalf of all Americans,” she added, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

“Once in a while, a day comes along when we make something big and extraordinary happen all at once. But in my experience, that’s not how we make change most of the time.”

The Vermont senator objected to the idea that his policy goals are unrealistic.

“People say that my vision for America, my ideas, are just too radical,” he said. “The only thing that is radical is the fact that the insurance companies and the drug companies and the fossil fuel industry and Wall Street and the military-industrial complex, they are standing in opposition to what we have to accomplish.”

Sanders also took a swipe at Clinton by emphasizing his independence of wealthy political contributors.

“I am proud that I am the only Democratic candidate running for president that does not have a Super PAC,” he said.

“This is a campaign, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, ‘of the people, by the people and for the people.’ ”