NFL running back Justin Jackson praised Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for breaking with Democrats and voting against President Biden’s nominee for Agriculture secretary.
Jackson, who plays for the Los Angeles Chargers, told Hill.TV that Sanders’s vote was the right move because it showed he was standing up to protect family farms, as well as Black rural farming populations, against corporate agriculture.
The Senate on Tuesday voted 92-7 to confirm Tom Vilsack to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the second time. Vilsack previously served for eight years as head of USDA under former President Obama.
Jackson, who also hosts a YouTube show, said Vilsack’s previous work as USDA chief made him a “pretty reviled character within the Black farming community.”
Jackson went on to say that Vilsack’s confirmation was “pretty upsetting,” adding that voters should have demanded more from Biden heading into the Nov. 3 election.
“When you don’t get any commitments for your vote and when you blindly go out there and vote for Biden without pressuring him to give you something, this is what you get.”
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