Dem primaries

Atlanta mayor: Sanders ‘disrespectful and dismissive’ to Obama on race

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, a Hillary Clinton supporter, is going after Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for saying that race relations would be better under his presidency.  

“So his comments last night, which I happen to believe are incorrect, are consistent with his dismissive and disrespectful attitude towards President Obama,” Reed said Friday in an interview on CNN.

{mosads}He was referring to comments made by Sanders in Thursday night’s debate, when the Vermont senator was asked whether race relations would be better with him in the White House than they are now.

“Absolutely,” Sanders replied, “because 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.”

Clinton supporters are taking that as a sign of disrespect to the nation’s first black president.

“I think it seemed a bit presumptuous to me to conclude that Bernie Sanders in the twilight of his career was going to be able to be the great healer in race relations,” said Congressional Black Caucus whip Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Friday.

Reed also hit Sanders for his lack of a record on racial justice issues and questioned his allegiance to the Democratic Party.

“Show me in the Senate where he led some broad coalition to get something significant accomplished done,” he said.

“He is running to be the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party, although he just became a Democrat within the last year.”