Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was the last candidate to speak at Tuesday’s presidential primary debate, the final one before the South Carolina and Super Tuesday primaries, 17 minutes in and in some cases after other candidates had spoken several times.
Klobuchar, asked whether former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s enforcement of stop-and-frisk policies was racist, bluntly responded, “Yes.”
“I think what we need to do, instead of just reviewing everything from the past, is talk about where we’re going to go forward,” Klobuchar said, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
“To me that means sentencing reform like the First Step Act,” she added, referring to the bipartisan criminal justice reform bill signed into law by President Trump, before also touting the need for improved voting rights protections.
Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, has also been subject to scrutiny on her criminal justice record, particularly the case of Myon Burrell, a black teenager sentenced to life in prison in a case that outside advocates said included a lack of evidence.
Tuesday’s primary debate quickly grew contentious and heated, with the seven candidates on stage repeatedly attacking each other on their records and policy platforms.