Bernie Adviser Nina Turner Blasts Audience From Black Women’s Forum for Booing Senator’s MLK Comments
Bernie Sanders campaign senior adviser and former State Senator
Nina Turnerexcoriated the people who booed Sanders for bringing up his civil rights activism, asking a rally crowd, “In what world do people boo that?”
While introducing Sanders at a rally in Fort Worth, Texas Thursday, Turner addressed Sanders’
appearance at Wednesday’s She the People forum on women of color, which did not go well. Sanders was repeatedly booed and jeered by the audience, and Turner was not happy about that.
A fired-up Turner told the crowd that “people want to strip [Sanders] of his history.”
She asked the crowd “In what world when you are sitting on the stage telling folks about your history, and you mention the fact that you were on the March on Washington with Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Fort Worth, in what world do people boo that?”
“That happened to Senator Sanders yesterday, and I’m calling it out,” Turner said. “In what world? You don’t boo folks for that. And I don’t care if it was somebody who I didn’t care about their policies, if they stood up with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other heroes and sheroes, we need to shout that out.”
Turner then went on an extended riff about Sanders’ record, including telling the millennials in the crowd that “when he was around your age, at the University of Chicago, he stood up against housing discrimination in Chicago… and he was chained to a black woman doing it.”
The moment Turner references occurred just after Sanders was
jeered for his response to a question about how he plans to appeal to black women.
A member of the audience asked Sanders “What do you believe is the federal government’s role to fight against the rise of white nationalism and white terrorist acts, and how do you plan to lead on that in your first year as president?”
Sanders delivered a lengthy response that wandered from a critique of Trump’s “demagoguery” to policies like immigration reform and Medicare for All, but did not address white supremacist terrorism. It was during this reply that the audience began to jeer.
Moderator
Amy Allison had to refocus Sanders, telling him “The core of the question is about, as president what would you do with the rise of white supremacist violence, to protect our communities?”
“You know, as somebody who, I know I date myself a little bit here, but I actually was at the March on Washington with Dr King back in 1963,” Sanders replied, to audible groans from the audience, “and as somebody who actively supported Jesse Jackson’s campaign, as one of the few white elected officials to do so in 88, I have dedicated my life to the fight against racism and sexism and discrimination of all forms.”
He concluded by saying “And as president of the United States, at the very top of our agenda will be the understanding that discrimination of all forms has got to end. And you do that using the bully pulpit and you use that doing legislation. If somebody wants to go around perpetrating hate crimes, that person will pay a very very heavy price indeed.”
The jeering and the boos for Sanders appeared to be more directed at his failure to answer the questions asked than at his activism. The only policy he mentioned that was in any way related to white supremacist violence was hate crimes legislation, which already exists.
