Cornel West tells Biden to get off 'symbolic crack pipe' over crime law or lose blacks to Trump
by Steven Nelson
| May 29, 2019 12:01 AM
Harvard University philosopher Cornel West says Democratic front-runner Joe Biden will lose black voters to President Trump if he doesn't "get off his symbolic crack pipe" and stop defending the 1994 crime law that he authored.
West, a prominent left-wing activist, spoke with the Washington Examiner after Trump tweeted Monday that blacks "will not be able to vote" for politicians associated with the law, which Biden defended this month by saying it "did not generate mass incarceration."
"I hope and pray he is unable to do it. But if Trump comes out strong on criminal justice reform, he is going to get a slice of the black vote, because this is life or death," West said. "I think Biden is going to have to take responsibility and acknowledge the contribution he made to something that was not a force for good. We all make mistakes, but this was a major, major bad judgment. And we have to tell the truth.
"That Joe Biden was one of the architects, or core architects, is going to haunt him in a very serious way," West said. "When he says it didn't contribute to mass incarceration, I tell him he has to get off his symbolic crack pipe."
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/cornel-west-tells-biden-to-get-off-symbolic-crack-pipe-over-crime-law-or-lose-blacks-to-trump
