In Jonathan Capehart's puff piece about Hillary Clinton’s reaction to the BLM protest at her fundraiser last night, he tried to downplay Hillary’s responsibility for the 1994 Crime Bill:
What isn’t fair is ignoring what Clinton promises to do to fix the glaring problems unleashed by a bill Sanders voted for and Clinton’s husband signed into law.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Hillary Clinton actively lobbied for passage of the Crime Bill in 1994 and shares just as much blame as her husband Bill Clinton and Bernie Sanders for its passage.
The Marshall Project has put together a history of her criminal justice record. She has flip-flop-flipped on many of these issues. But, here is the relevant portions on the 1994 Crime Bill:
Annual “Women in Policing” Awards, Aug. 10, 1994: “There is something wrong when a crime bill takes six years to work its way through Congress and the average criminal serves only four…. We need more police. We need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets…. We will be able to say, loudly and clearly, that for repeat, violent, criminal offenders — three strikes and you’re out. We are tired of putting you back in through the revolving door.”
C-SPAN interview, Aug. 15, 1994: “It’s a very well-thought-out crime bill that is both smart and tough. And I think Americans are gonna say, why these political games? And we will eventually get a good crime bill like the President has proposed.”
1996: In her book, “It Takes a Village,” Clinton again endorses the crime bill, and argues in favor of “zero-tolerance” policies for kids who break the rules at school.
In 1996, she continued her tough on crime position, where she used the ugly rightwing phrase “Superpredator” and talked of “bring them to heel”.
As Senator, she sponsored zero bills that dealt with criminal justice reform but did co-sponsor (which requires no work) a mixture of good and bad bills dealing with criminal justice reform.
In 2008, she talked about re-evaluating parts of the 1994 Crime Bill while attacking Obama for being weak on crime.
And now Hillary is all for criminal justice reform. I applaud her for the shift but that doesn’t mean her past record or comments should be forgotten.
As for appallingly “Bring them to heel” comment, she owes an honesty public apology. Not a carefully worded statement to a friendly reporter where the words “sorry” or “apologize” are never spoken.
