Harry Belafonte endorses Bernie Sanders
Entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.
He made the announcement in a video released on YouTube by the Vermont independent's campaign on Thursday.
"I think he represents opportunity, I think he represents a moral imperative, I think he represents a certain kind of truth that's not often evidenced in the course of politics," Belafonte said in the nearly two-minute-long video.
"I would suggest to those of you who have not yet made up your minds, or maybe even some of you who have made up your minds, to maybe consider and reconsider what it is that Bernie Sanders offers," Belafonte added. "He offers us a chance to declare unequivocally that there is a group of citizens who have a deep caring for where our nation goes and what it does in the process of going."
Here's the video:
Belafonte has often been critical of politics -- both of conservative Republicans and even President Obama. In a 2011 interview with The Daily Beast, he said that Mr. Obama had "failed."
"Now we come to the moment when he has failed the test. That doesn't mean he can't change the mark. But there's no question that he has a failing grade in the way he's handled his platform," Belafonte said. "Absent in the arsenal of possibilities is a moral compass. If that compass was fully engaged, he could have stepped above the political fray and made courageous statements about laws regarding homeland security, such as the Patriot Act, that are still on our books."
Belafonte's endorsement of Sanders comes just two days after the senator win New Hampshire's Democratic primary and the same day he's set to face Hillary Clinton in a debate set in South Carolina.
Both candidates are vying for the support of minority voters as they head into the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 20 and South Carolina Democratic primary on Feb. 27.