On the day before South Carolina's primary, Hillary Clinton led Bernie Sanders 58-31 in an average of many recent polls, leaving an 11-percent undecided up for grabs. She went on to win it on February 27 with a 73.5-26 trouncing, though, indicating the undecideds -- and even a few previous Bernie supporters -- climbed aboard the Clinton caravan at the last minute. And one well-known Sanders advocate could be the reason why.
On the evening before primary election day, Solicitor David Pascoe managed to get both candidates to appear at his annual oyster roast in Orangeburg. Both Clinton and Sanders addressed about 400 Democratic voters from the area, and in front of national media, too. And introducing Bernie Sanders was rapper Michael "Killer Mike" Render, who's worked with the campaign since November 2015.
Speaking about a Black Lives Matters' interruption that occurred two days earlier at a Hillary Clinton event, Killer Mike said:
"I will not vote for anyone that told a black girl to shut up or that she was being rude(.)"
Here's video of Killer Mike's introduction:
But Render's description of the incident that occurred in Charleston on February 24 isn't exactly correct.
Ashley Williams, a Black Lives Matter protester, crashed a private campaign event bearing a sign that read "we have to bring them to heel," chop-quoting a statement Clinton made in 1996. "Will you apologize to black people for mass incarceration?" Williams asked.
Unlike Killer Mike's claim, Clinton does not tell the protester "to shut up" or accuse her of "being rude(.)" Instead, she attempts to respond, but is frequently interrupted by Williams, leading Clinton to ask "Well, can I talk?" Shortly after, Williams' interruptions and harassment got her escorted out of the private residence by Secret Service.
See that in Williams' own video:
Williams isn't correct in her chop-quote assessment, either. The "bring them to heel" statement Clinton made 20 years ago was not against black youth, but against gangs that were moving into organized crime.
"We need to take these people on. They are often connected to big drug cartels. They are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called 'super-predators.' No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel."
Here's video of that 1996 address Clinton made at Keene State College in New Hampshire:
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