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Sunday night was my big chance to ask the Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, extended questions about race, inequality and criminal justice reform.

Don Lemon: “As a black man in America, if I were born today I’d have a one in three chance of ending up in prison in my life. Secretary Clinton, on the campaign trail, you are calling for an end to the era of mass incarceration, but a lot of folks in the black community blame the 1994 Crime Bill, a bill you supported for locking up a generation of black men. Given what’s happened since 1994, why should black people trust you to get it right this time?”

Hillary Clinton: “Well Don, let me say this, Senator Sanders voted for that bill, we both supported it. And, I think it’s fair to say we did because back then there was an outcry over the rising crime rate, and people from all communities were asking that action be taken. Now, my husband said at the NAACP last summer that it solved some problems, but it created other problems, and I agree.”

But while admitting the bill was a mistake, she made sure to point out that Senator Sanders actually voted for the bill.

Sanders says he did it because there were other parts of the bill he supported like the ban on assault weapons and the violence against women act.

“So, to answer your question, what you read was a congressman who was torn, who said there are good things in that bill, there are bad things overall. I voted for it.”

But where we are right now is having more than 2.2 million people in jail — more than any other country on earth. This is a campaign promise, at the end of my first term, we will not have more people in jail than any other country.”

Admitting mistakes and explaining why they did what they did was no doubt easier than answering this next question:

Don Lemon: “In a speech about policing, the FBI director James Comey borrowed a phrase saying, ‘everyone is a little bit racist.’ What racial blind spot do you have? Secretary, you first.”

Don Lemon to Presidential Candidates: ‘What’s Your Racial Blind Spot?’  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

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