The fifth Democratic Debate was last night. Per usual, there were too many people on stage, too many expected one-liners and not enough Black issues being addressed. However, there were some shining moments and Twitter had a ball.
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On the stage were Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey; Sen. Bernie Sanders; Sen. Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttiegeg, former Vice President Joe Biden and others. Sadly, former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro did not qualify, even after many people, including Angela Rye have called him the “racial justice candidate.”
One of the most-talked about moments of the night was when Cory Booker laid into Biden for saying “marijuana is a gateway drug.” Booker said, “Marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people. The war on drugs has been a war on Black and brown people. This week I hear him literally say that, ‘I don’t think we should legalize marijuana.'”
He then landed the punchline, “I thought you might have been high when you said it.”
Biden then tried to defend himself and things worsened. “I think we should decriminalize marijuana, period. I think anyone who has a record should be let out of jail, their records expunged, completely zeroed out.”
He continued, “I am part of that Obama coalition. I come out for the Black community in terms of my support.” The former Vice President then added, “The only African American woman who’d ever been elected to the United States Senate.”
Only problem is, the second Black woman elected to the Senate was right on the stage with him — Kamala Harris.
Biden was trying to reference former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun from Illinois, who was in the Senate from 1993 to 1999. See the clip below:
Harris received a round of applause for her passionate statement about Black voters, saying, “The larger issue is that for too long, I think candidates have taken for granted constituencies that have been the backbone of the Democratic Party. And have overlooked those constituencies. And they show up when it’s, you know, close to election time, and show up in a black church and want to get the vote but just haven’t been there before.”
Watch below:
See the reactions below:
