Hours before Bernie Sanders kicked off a tour of historically black colleges with an event at Atlanta's Morehouse College, Hillary Clinton's campaign slammed her adversary for what it calls a "fairly misleading" omission.
“It’s fairly misleading that Senator Bernie Sanders is kicking off a tour of Historically Black Colleges and Universities without mentioning that his plan leaves many of their students out in the cold," said U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a graduate of Morehouse.
"While Hillary Clinton has made HBCUs a priority in her higher education plan, Bernie Sanders’ doesn’t even mention HBCUs once in his proposal."
Sanders and Clinton have sparred at college campuses over dueling college affordability plans. Sanders plan would provide tuition-free higher education, while Clinton's offers free tuition for students at community colleges and a pledge that students will "never have to pay more than 10 percent of their income when repaying the loan."
Clinton's campaign sees historically black colleges, like Morehouse, as a bastion of support in the Feb. 27 South Carolina primary and the votes in Georgia and other Southern states that follow on March 1. The Sanders campaign, which didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, is hoping to convince minority students and others to give him a second look.
Meanwhile, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed also stepped up his attacks on Sanders as the visit neared. Our AJC colleague Katie Leslie reports that he predicted a Sanders thrashing in Georgia on March 1.
Our AJC colleague Katie Leslie reports that at a press conference on Tuesday, he predicted Sanders would be clobbered on Georgia's March 1 primary.
“He’s never led anything in the U.S. Senate. What has he led? How many bills has he passed? He’s no Senator Kennedy,” Reed said of Sanders, comparing his rallies to Republican frontrunner Donald Trump's raucous events.
“We are not going to put our party in the hands of someone who is not even a Democrat and watch him take this party over a cliff,” he said. “He is not going to get away with this foolishness in Georgia or South Carolina.”
He added: "Stop treating Bernie Sanders like he's something special. He's not going to be the nominee."
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