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

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

Chelsea told a town hall in Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday that Sanders’ goal “worried” her and is unrealistic as most of the country’s inmates are held at 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.” Adding, “my mother understands how the government works.”

“Ms Clinton’s daughter argued that reform needs to come in the shape of education and the promise of jobs,” states the Independent, “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, Chelsea railed against Sanders on the issue of health care, announcing erroneously, 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 to the tea party movement during a campaign event for his wife in South Florida.

—Posted by Roisin Davis

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