Biden Confronted About Crime Bill, Says ‘It Didn’t Generate Mass Incarceration… The Black Caucus Supported It’

Former Vice President and current Democratic presidential primary frontrunner Joe Biden was confronted about his 1994 crime bill, and delivered a lengthy defense that included the claim that “it didn’t generate mass incarceration,” and that the “[Congressional] Black Caucus supported it.”

During a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire, it was Biden who first brought up the “good part” of the crime bill by bragging about the assault weapons ban and other gun control measured contained therein.

But during the Q&A period, an audience member named Catherine confronted Biden about the “bad part,” and the former VP delivered a rather full-throated defense of the legislation.

“So I’m going to bring up the bad part of the crime bill that you sort of referenced,” she said. “I’m curious how you’re going to really repair a lot of the black and brown communities that have been ravaged by the war on drugs and mass incarceration, and not necessarily high-level policies aimed at all people living in poverty, but specifically people who are institutionally and structurally in poverty because of magic incarceration and the war on crime.”

“Folks, let’s get something straight,” Biden said. “92 out of every 100 prisoners end up behind bars are in a state prison, not a federal prison. This idea that the crime bill generated mass incarceration, it did not generate mass incarceration.”

Biden then launched into a lengthy defense of the crime bill, saying it was “about prevention, and that “there were no more mandatories, except two that I had to accept.”

“One was that President Clinton wanted three strikes and you’re out,” he said, and went on to say that the other was for “carjacking,” both of which he says he opposed.

“What happened is, the mass incarceration occurred by the states setting mandatory sentences,” Biden said, and noted that “if you go back and look, the black caucus supported the bill.”

Biden said that “The big mistake in the crime bill on drugs was one that Pat Monahan, and he’s a great guy, remember that the crack of epidemic came from the Bahamas. And we were told by medical doctors at the time that because it permeated the membrane of the brain more quickly, it was the ‘crack you never come back,’ it was somehow fundamentally different than someone in a beautiful neighborhood like this sniffing a line of cocaine.”

“I’ve been trying to change that since it passed,” Biden continued, and then noted that following the election of President George W. Bush, the gun control provisions in the bill were allowed to expire.

“So folks, we don’t need any more mandatory sentences,” Biden said, in conclusion. “The biggest mistake in that bill was, in my view, was making crack cocaine and powder cocaine a different sentence. They should not be mandatory sentences.”

Biden is correct that the Congressional Black Caucus supported the 1994 crime bill (which Biden’s current chief competitor, Senator Bernie Sanders also voted for), but the bill did encourage mass incarceration by granting billions of dollars to states that enacted tougher sentencing laws.

Watch the clip above, via ABC.