Al Sharpton: Bloomberg Must Try And ‘Repair The Damages’ Done By Stop And Frisk

Reverend Al Sharpton, who marched against former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, said the 2020 Democratic candidate can’t just ask for forgiveness and try to move on from his damning Stop and Frisk policy.

“There ought to be some effort on his past, on his part, rather, to say, and, therefore, I want to try and repair the damages done by this,” he told Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe. “Some kind of criminal justice initiative, some kind of effort for those that were scarred.”

Bloomberg, knowing that he has a steep hill to climb because of his controversial past policy, has sought to engage with black elected officials, as he did in Houston in the past week.

Still, Sharpton wanted to make it clear that he doesn’t think the rest of the Democratic field — themselves with their own less-than-perfect histories on the issue of race — get to skate on it, and attack Bloomberg, invoking the names of Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Amy Klobuchar.

“I also, Mika, don’t want to see him as a leaf that the other candidates dump some of their racial baggage, and that’s why I said in my closing last night I want to know what Bernie’s gonna say about the vote he did for the Crime Bill where people went to jail on the Crime Bill, no matter his reason for voting for it, it was a law that incarcerated people,” he said.

“Joe Biden wrote it,” Sharpton continued. “Amy Klobuchar, with a 16-year-old that many feel should have never gone to jail that she prosecuted in Minnesota. So I don’t want them to attack Bloomberg to cover the fact that all of them have racial baggage.”

Watch the complete interview above, via MSNBC.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!