FARMVILLE, Va. — Rainbow Push Coalition’s Rev. Jesse Jackson says the enthusiasm gap among minorities and younger voters for Hillary Clinton is “overplaying” a “narrative.”
Sen. Tim Kaine goes into Tuesday’s vice presidential debate with the Clinton campaign polling better than Donald Trump, but Trump’s core support remains with him.
“I think we’re almost overplaying that narrative of an enthusiasm gap. I ‘needs’ to vote are both positive and negative. The positive side is the voting rights act that suffers through it and again the protected right to vote,” Jackson told The Daily Caller Tuesday night before the debate.
“In order for the vote to be protected we need one who will give us a Supreme Court and not take it back — affordable health care, a living wage, student loan debt reduction, racial justice, gender equality. Hillary’s urban policies are to invest in infrastructure. Donald Trump’s is stop and frisk,” he added.
Stop and frisk is a law enforcement tactic to search a subject used throughout the terms of New York City Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg but later discontinued by current city Mayor Bill de Blasio.
When asked by TheDC if Clinton was always against the stop and frisk policy going back to the time when she first ran for Senate in New York, Jackson replied, “I don’t know if she was, but it doesn’t serve our interests to look backward trying to go forward. Unless she’s not for it now, it’s unconstitutional and is impractical and she’s not for it so that’s very important.”
Jackson had warmer relations with Trump in 1998 when Trump announced a program he helped financially to help recruit more young minorities into corporate America. Additionally, Jackson supported Barack Obama in the 2008 primary over Clinton.
Calling Trump his friend, Jackson said before cameras and reporters, “When we opened this Wall Street project,” he continued, “he gave us space at 40 Wall Street, which was to make a statement about our having a presence there.”
“Beyond that, in terms of reaching out and being inclusive, he’s done that too,” Jackson said. “He has this sense of the curious and a will to make things better.”
“Aside from all of his style, and his pizazz, he’s a serious person who is an effective builder of people.”