Breakfast with Bernie: Sanders Meets with Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem
One day after his triumph in the New Hampshire primary, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders met Rev. Al Sharpton for breakfast at Harlem's famous Sylvia's restaurant.
Sharpton told MSNBC's Tamron Hall that the two men discussed issues African American and Latino voters are facing, including inequality in education, the economy and the criminal justice system, and the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where Hillary Clinton issued a call to action during a visit Sunday.
"Secretary Clinton went to Flint last Sunday, I wanted to know what he intended to do about Flint … as he has dealt with the economic issues of the top one percent," Sharpton said of the Vermont senator. "As you democratize the economy, race still factors in because we still have an inequality in wealth, an inequality in income."
"And he answered very forthright. We met one-on-one, he was very candid, very open," he added.
Sanders is reaching out to members of the African American community as he looks ahead to the Feb. 27 Democratic primary in South Carolina, where African American voters favor Clinton to Sanders 74 percent to 17 percent, according to the latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal/Marist poll.
Sharpton, who has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate, said his "main concern is that as the first black family in American history moves out of the White House at the end of the year, the concerns of blacks don't move out with them and we're marginalized."
Sanders also stopped by The View on Wednesday, where he discussed how he plans to keep his New Hampshire momentum going into South Carolina.
"With a lot of effort, I'll tell ya. There's a lot of hard work in front of us, but I think the message that we're bringing forth, that this country is supposed to be a nation of fairness, and we're not seeing that fairness right now," Sanders said.
He added that his campaign has a lot of support within the African-American community.
"I think most importantly, I think the reason we'll do well is our views on criminal justice in this country, and that is we have a broken criminal justice system. Why should we in America have more people in jail largely African American and Latino than any other country on Earth?" he said to applause.
"And I think most Americans, black, white, Latino, whoever, understand that it is not acceptable to see unarmed people being shot by police officers. I'm a former mayor so I know most police officers work hard doing a very difficult job, but when a police officer breaks the law, like any other public official, that officer must be held accountable."
