Presidential Contenders Appear At National Urban League Conference
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/AP) — Some political heavyweights and presidential contenders are in South Florida Friday. Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton were among several who delivered their messages at The National Urban League Conference in Fort Lauderdale. The civil rights organization hosted 5 Presidential candidates out of 21 invited.
"And the following candidates were invited but never responded in any way to our invitation," said Marc Morel of the National Urban League.
After calling a list of those who ignored the event including Chris Christie, Donald Trump, and Rick Santorum, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson took the stage.
"I have no desire to get rid of safety nets for people who need them. I have a strong desire however to provide a ladder to get people out of dependency so that they become part of the fabric of America," said Carson.
Carson pushed an economic plan that would ask American companies to bring 2 trillion in offshore money back to America.
"We are going to declare a 6 month hiatus where they can bring that money back without paying any taxes. And 10% on that has to be used to create jobs for unemployed people and people on welfare. You want to talk about a stimulus?"
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton received a standing ovation from the crowd as she touted her record, pledged to do more for minorities and equality and took a shot at other candidates.
"I don't think you can credibly say that everyone has a right to rise and then say you are for phasing out Medicare or for phasing out Obamacare. People can't rise if they can't afford healthcare. They can't rise if the minimum wage is too low to live on," said Clinton.
Within moments of taking the stage, Clinton reminded the crowd of the federal government's poor response to Hurricane Katrina a decade ago, lamented the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland, and ticked off statistics on African Americans receiving disproportionately longer sentences. African-Americans are three times more likely to be denied a mortgage loan than people who are white, she said.
"Race still plays a significant role in determining who gets ahead in America and who gets left behind," Clinton said. "And yes, while that's partly a legacy of discrimination that stretches back to the start of our nation, it is also because of discrimination that is still ongoing."
Clinton told the audience she has fought to tear down those barriers since her first job out of law school, with the Children's Defense Fund. She said she fought for children's health insurance as first lady and spoke out on issues of economic equality for women.
"I'm planning to be president, and anybody who seeks that office has a responsibility to say it, and more than that, to grapple with the systemic inequities," she said. "I want you to know I see it and I hear you, and the racial disparities you work hard every day to overcome go against everything I believe in and everything I want to help America achieve."
Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, a Democratic candidate, spoke about his successes in the African-American community, specifically noting reducing prison populations, crime rates, and recidivisms.
"We are not there yet. Every headline or video of official abuse, injustice, indifference, killing or murder reminds us of how far we still have to go," said O'Malley.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders offered to shake the nations politics up by bridging the gap between haves and have not's.
"I think when we have a nation today where a handful of billionaires have unbelievable influence over the economic and political life of this country there is nothing significant that we will accomplish unless we have the courage to take them on and that is what this campaign is about," said Sanders.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush wrapped the event focusing on the changes he made as Florida Governor including education reforms. He also pitched his economic plan to grow the country at 4%.
He told the predominantly-African American audience that the country's decades-long efforts to fight poverty are failing and his record as Florida governor serves as a blueprint of his future presidency.
Bush told the crowd that as governor in Florida from 1999 to 2007, he ordered the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol, raised the number of black judges and tripled the state's hiring of minority-owned businesses.
"From my first day as governor until the last, respect was the rule, and opportunity for all was the goal," he said.
Bush also boasted of his work to improve Florida's schools, saying that "social progress is always the story of widening the circle of opportunity."
"I gave the challenge of school reform everything I had as governor," he said. "I believe in the right to rise in this country. And a child is not rising if he's not reading."
Bush's time in office is not remembered as fondly by some Democrats in the state. State Sen. Arthenia Joyner, the Democratic leader in the state Senate, said Bush denied thousands of African Americans the right to vote by purging state's voter rolls. Joyner said Bush kept felons from restoring their voting rights and cut early voting hours as governor.
"If you are indeed sincere about being inclusive, then you need to first acknowledge your mistakes and unequivocally apologize directly the community you wronged," she wrote this week in a letter to Bush.
But Bush also had some fans in the audience on Friday, including T. Willard Fair, president of the Urban League of Greater Miami. He started a charter school with Bush in one of Miami's poorest communities in the 1990s, praised him as "a different" Republican in an op-ed published Thursday in the Orlando Sentinel.
"I write this because I fear that many who look like me will do as I used to do before I met Jeb Bush — assume that if a candidate is Republican, they can't be for me," he wrote. I'm writing today to tell you: 'Not this Republican.' This Republican is different."
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