Illinois Democratic Rep. [crscore]Bobby Rush[/crscore] said Wednesday that he is “ashamed” of his past vote for Bill Clinton’s crime bill and said it was one of the “worst catastrophes” that hit the black community.
Rush, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton, said that she “of course” needs to do something to fix the rift caused by the bill. Last week, activists confronted Bill Clinton at a rally about the bill and he was forced to defend it. “Maybe you thought they were good citizens …. You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter. Tell the truth. You are defending the people who cause young people to go out and take guns,” Clinton said in response to the Black Lives Matter protesters.
The crime bill receives criticism in the black community primarily due to sentencing disparities written into it. For instance, 100 grams of powder cocaine receives the same sentence as one gram of crack cocaine.
“I am ashamed of my vote. I sincerely apologize to my God, I apologize to my community, to my family,” Rush said on MSNBC. The Chicago lawmaker said, “crack cocaine and the crime bill were the two worst issues, problems, catastrophes that the black community has suffered through in the last 50 years.”
He said that Hillary would need to fix the effects of this bill by, “the creation of a strong economy in the African-American community, investment in the African-American community.”
“I want her to not just repudiate it in words but repudiate it in programs,” Rush said.