Chelsea Clinton Attacks Bernie Sanders: ‘We Are Not Electing a King’

Chelsea Clinton has hit out at her mother’s Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, leveling harsh criticism at his proposal to end mass incarceration in the U.S.

Chelsea told a town hall audience in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday that Sanders’ goal “worried” her and is unrealistic, as most of the country’s inmates are held in state, not federal, prisons.

Sanders recently described the U.S. incarceration rate, which is the highest in the world, as an “international embarrassment,” pledging to prioritize criminal justice reform under his presidency. More than 2.2 million people are behind bars in the nation, according to the latest Department of Justice figures.

“We are not electing a king, we are electing a president,” Chelsea said. “We need someone who understands what they have to do in the job [as president] but also in partnership with Congress, governors and mayors.” She added, “My mother understands how the government works.”

According to the Independent, “Ms Clinton’s daughter argued that reform needs to come in the shape of education and the promise of jobs, citing her mother’s ‘cradle to education and cradle to jobs pipeline’ policy for historically disenfranchised communities like inner cities and rural areas.”

Last month, the Clintons’ daughter railed against Sanders on the issue of health care, claiming that “Senator Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the [Children’s Health Insurance Program], dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance … to go back to an era—before we had the Affordable Care Act—that would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance.” As a recent article notes, “Bernie Sanders has long been a champion of a single-payer health care system as the only way to assure that all Americans receive medical coverage. Rather than strip millions and millions of people of their health insurance, he wants to be sure millions and millions of people actually get health insurance.”

Bill Clinton has taken an active role in the family mudslinging, most recently comparing Sanders’ supporters with the tea party movement during a campaign event for his wife in Florida.

—Posted by Roisin Davis