Clinton pitches broad agenda for helping blacks

Hillary Clinton on Tuesday called for “breaking down barriers” for African Americans as she continues to paint her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders as a single-issue candidate. 

{mosads}During a speech in New York City flanked by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, retiring Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Clinton touted her commitment to these issues that she says have always been at “the heart of my campaign.” 

Her speech comes as both Clinton and her Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are courting black voters ahead of the South Carolina’s Feb. 27 Democratic primary.   

While she said breaking up big banks is still an important issue to tackle — a clear shot at Sanders’s core campaign message — Clinton explained that the country must look beyond that and address a host of other issues that plague the black community. 

“Flint reminds us, my friends, there’s a lot more going on in our country that we should be concerned about,” Clinton said. “The truth is we’re not a single-issue country.”

“We need a serious plan to create jobs where unemployment remains stubbornly high. We still need to face the painful reality that African-Americans are nearly three times as likely as whites to be denied a mortgage,” Clinton continued. 

“And when gun violence is the leading cause of death for young African-American men, outstripping the next nine causes of death combined, there’s something deeply wrong with that,” she added. 

Clinton named a handful of policy proposals to address the opportunity gap for African-Americans and combat systemic racism.  

Clinton recounted her recent visit to Flint, Mich., a city that faces a major water contamination crisis. On March 6, Clinton and Sanders will square off in Flint for a Democratic debate two days ahead of the Michigan primary. 

“There are many Flints across our country, places where people of color and poor are left out and left behind,” Clinton said. “I’m going to keep talking about Flint until they get the help they need for as long as it takes.” 

The former secretary of State also fiercely defended President Obama, adding that he’s the best example of the progress being made in America to overcome racial inequality. 

She railed against Republicans for talking in “coded racial language” about the president. “This kind of hatred and bigotry has no place in our politics or our country,” she said. 

Clinton has repeatedly tussled with Sanders over his criticism of the president, which he has pushed back as a “low blow.” 

South Carolina has a more diverse electorate than other early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire and Clinton holds a wide double-digits lead over the Vermont senator in the Palmetto State polls. 

Clinton has been locking down support from prominent black Democrats as she seeks to consolidate support after Sanders won a resounding victory in New Hampshire. The Congressional Black Caucus PAC voted to endorse Clinton last week and earlier last month, the chairman, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), threw his support behind her. 

Some of Clinton’s campaign surrogates have called into question Sanders’s commitment to civil rights and criminal justice reform. 

But Sanders has been making inroads with this voter bloc and has recently won the support of Harry Belafonte, a civil rights activist and friend of Martin Luther King Jr., and of former NAACP head Ben Jealous.

During last week’s Democratic debate in Wisconsin, Sanders said that race relations would be better under his leadership than during Obama’s administration, saying “what we will do is instead of give tax breaks to millionaires, we will create millions of jobs for low-income kids so they are not hanging out on street corners.”

Prior to Tuesday’s speech, Clinton met with the Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights activists, who also huddled with Sanders last week following his resounding victory in the New Hampshire primary. 

“We had a great conversation because they are working to drive 21st century agenda for jobs and freedom,” Clinton said on Tuesday.