[R]OCK HILL, S.C. – A revved-up Bernie Sanders took his populist message to this key Southern state on Friday, targeting concerns of African-Americans in particular during a three-way presidential forum that was more interview than debate.
Sanders’ style fit better with the long-form format – he detests the “30-second soundbite” yet is adept at it – but it also didn’t provide an opportunity for the Democratic presidential candidates to challenge one another directly. Polls show the Vermont senator behind in the Palmetto State, which has its primary shortly after New Hampshire’s.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow interviewed Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley separately, sequentially, with the candidates fielding questions from the liberal pundit for more than 20 minutes each before an audience of 3,000 at Winthrop University.
“The issues that impact the people of South Carolina, the South and all over America, are the same issues that impact the people of Vermont — and that is that the middle class of our country is disappearing,” Sanders told Maddow.
Sanders managed to hit all of his usual points during the interview, which veered from issues of terrorism to trade policy. Sanders’ most popular lines of the night — as measured through applause — came in his appeals to African-Americans, a population he said is being unfairly affected by unemployment, policing practices and voting policies.
“I want everybody to know that real unemployment and underemployment for African-American kids 17 to 24, high school graduates, is 51 percent — 51 percent,” Sanders told the crowd. “And I’ve worked with Congressman John Conyers and others to say we are going to invest in education and jobs for the kids of this country rather than jails and incarceration.”
Sanders’ campaign had a difficult start in trying to pick up support from some African-Americans and he re-calibrated his campaign near the end of the summer after he was interrupted at multiple events by members of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Following those events, Sanders met with leaders and released an aggressive racial justice platform in August, which he later tweaked following input from activists. He also hired two African-Americans, an outreach director, Marcus Ferrell, as well as a national spokeswoman with ties to racial justice groups, Symone Sanders.
Hours before the forum Friday, in a further push to court black votes, Sanders railed against voter suppression measures he says disproportionately affect African-Americans, calling Republicans who have reduced the power of the Voting Rights Act “cowards.”
Clinton also made a Friday pitch to African-Americans by enriching her own racial justice platform, adding calls for the elimination of some mandatory minimum sentences. Sanders’ platform includes the bulk of the reforms Clinton outlined Friday.
Sanders appeared better prepared on questions about his record on gun control after stumbling to explain his positions in the first debate in Las Vegas. This time around, he pointed positively to the gun control measures he has supported, and said that the National Rifle Association hasn’t liked him since his first congressional run in 1988.
“I have voted for an instant background check, which needs to be made stronger and needs to be expanded,” he said to applause. “I have voted to do away with the gun show loophole. And what I want to see is a deal with the Straw Man Exemption right now so people can legally buy guns and give it to criminals.”
He covertly criticized Clinton’s inconsistency on the Keystone XL pipeline, which was just rejected by President Obama, and pointed to her coziness to Wall Street. But he was mainly on the offensive.
“I can’t walk down a hallway in the nation’s capitol without people begging me to beat up on Hillary Clinton, attack Hillary Clinton,” Sanders said. “Tell me why she’s the worst person in the world. And I resist it.”
Clinton never uttered Sanders’ name in her time onstage, and talked on many of the same issues as Sanders, including racial justice, war and Wall Street.
“Anybody who thinks that they can influence what I will do doesn’t know me very well,” Clinton said in response to whether she was swayed by large campaign donations made to her by powerful interests. “And they can actually look and see what I have said and done throughout my career.”
Sanders was — on a relative Sanders scale — relaxed at the forum, likely relishing the extra time the forum structure provided. It even seemed at moments that the Vermont senator was having fun, a contrast to his trademark seriousness and intensity.
He made lighthearted references to Larry David’s impersonation of him, the size of his underwear collection and his grumpiness. When asked his dream job outside of politics, he answered, “President of CNN,” a line that got the crowd laughing.
“And if I was president of CNN, trust me, the way media deals with politics would radically change,” Sanders said.
He shied away from criticizing O’Malley, while the former Maryland governor spent part of his time questioning Sanders’ party loyalty.
“I’m not a former independent. I’m not a former Republican,” O’Malley said. “I believe in the party of Franklin Roosevelt, the party of John F. Kennedy.”
Where Sanders Stands in South Carolina
Sanders is a relative unknown in South Carolina, especially when compared to Hillary Clinton, who cut her political teeth below the Mason-Dixon line as first lady of Arkansas. Her time as first lady of the United States, a U.S. senator from New York and secretary of state further raised her profile, unlike Sanders, who many here are meeting for the first time.
However, Clinton has enjoyed front-runner status in South Carolina before, only to see it collapse.
“She is a brilliant woman who has campaigned throughout the South,” said Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, who represents South Carolina’s Sixth District. “Remember, she was leading in the polls in South Carolina in 2008 until she ran up against history” and lost the primary to Barack Obama.
Sanders’ tough spot in South Carolina was re-enforced with a poll released Wednesday from Winthrop University. The data shows 71 percent of respondents leaning towards Clinton, with Sanders notching just 15 percent. Clinton polled even better with African-Americans, hitting 80 percent of support in the poll.
“African-Americans can make up more than 50 percent of the Democratic president primary vote in South Carolina, which is a much larger portion than you’ll see in the Iowa Caucus or New Hampshire primary,” said Winthrop Polling Director Scott Huffmon.
Sanders has drawn large crowds nationwide, including drawing 3,000 people during a September visit to the Winthrop auditorium where the Friday forum was held.
“Sanders must convert campaign excitement into long-term voter commitment to begin to close the gap,” Huffmon said.
Sanders staffers pointed to statistics in the poll that show 35 percent of respondents might change their mind as proof that Sanders could boost his popularity in the state.
Adolphus Belk on Sanders’ chances in South Carolina
Dr. Adolphus Belk Jr., a Winthrop professor who specializes in U.S. racial politics, said the poll didn’t show antipathy from black voters towards Sanders, but simply demonstrated a “lack of familiarity” with the Vermont senator.
Belk said that while Clinton does have an organizational edge over Sanders, the former first lady doesn’t have the strongest record on mass incarceration, which is a major issue for some African-Americans. He pointed to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which was championed by then President Bill Clinton in the ’90s.
“As far as former Secretary Clinton is concerned, this has been a tough issue to negotiate,” Belk said. “Now people are starting to look more critically at the 1994 crime bill which had a rather deleterious impact when you think about the growth of mass incarceration.”
Rep. Clyburn, long considered one of the most powerful U.S. congressmen, said Clinton’s strong number in the state could change as more voters are introduced to Sanders. (He is touring the state Saturday).
But Clyburn said that just as Clinton was hit hard by the historic presidency of Barack Obama in 2008, Sanders and O’Malley were having trouble toppling another campaign that could change history.
“I think for a lot of people they feel the time has come for a woman to get elected president, so that’s why her numbers are where they are,” Clyburn said. “But we will see.”
