During yesterday's Meet the Press Chuck Todd sprung a a letter from one of Bernie's campaign staffers on Senator Sanders with an apology.
CHUCK TODD: BuzzFeed has an article out this morning. Headlines is this: Sanders’ campaign reaches out to Black Lives Matter activists. Quote, I apologize it took our campaign so long. Tell me more about it.
BERNIE SANDERS: Well, that was sent out by a staffer, not by me. Look, we are reaching out to all kinds of groups, absolutely. I met with people at Black Lives Matter. We’re reaching out to Latino groups. We’re reaching out to the unions. We’re fighting to expand Social Security and we’re reaching out to senior groups. We’re reaching out to health care groups because we believe that everybody in America is entitled to health care. We’re reaching out to everybody.
But on this issue of Black Lives Matter, let me be very clear, the issue that they are raising is a very, very important issue. There is no candidate for president who will be stronger in fighting against institutional racism and, by the way, reforming a broken criminal justice system.
Chuck, we have more people in jail in the United States of America than any country on Earth. And we need real changes. We need to do away with the militarization of local police departments. We need to do away with minimum sentencing. We needed indication and jobs for our young people rather than jails and incarceration.
TODD: I understand that. But you said a staffer put it out but you felt an apology was necessary?
SANDERS: No. I don’t. I think we’re going to be working with all groups. This was sent out without my knowledge.
link
Who sent this email?
Marcus Ferrell
Southeastern Political Director/African American Outreach Director
www.BernieSanders.com
[CONTACT INFO]
How many regional Political Directors does the Sanders campaign have? Six? Eight? I imagine the other regional Political Directors include other other areas of responsibility in their portfolios the way Marcus Ferrell's did. Should we expect the Senator to be familiar with all the campaign's Political Directors' corespondence? That's an unrealistic expectation IMHO.
I think Sanders was cognizant of how little time he would have in front of the camera, and he didn't want to get bogged down discussing an email he hadn't seen. Granted that may have seemed dismissive. But Bernie wanted to move on to talk about the goals the Sanders campaign and Black Lives Matters share in common.
Is the gulf between our perspectives so wide that we all watched the same interview and came away with such wildly divergent impressions of what happened? Some of us seem willing to give Bernie the benefit of the doubt, others of us adamantly aren't. But don't we all essentially share the same goals? Can't we overcome those differences to work together toward the goals we all share in common?
Up at Politico now:
Bernie Sanders takes Black Lives Matter activist up on offer to talk racial justice
To dispel the myth that criminal justice reforms were not a priority for Bernie Sanders before Netroots Nation when Black Lives Matters protesters interrupted speeches, I'm posting a Sanders interview from back on May 1st 2015 where Sanders discusses the urgent need for criminal justice reforms.
I'm not clear if this was from earlier today or yesterday.
Bernie concludes with this:
"The Amarican people want us to address those issues, they do not want us to be attacking each other."
I think that's something we all need to bear in mind.