Gore deflects Bradley's attacks during Democratic debate
By Amy Paulson/CNN
February 21, 2000
Web posted at: 11:36 p.m. EST (0436 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Vice President Al Gore deflected shots aimed at him Monday night by rival Bill Bradley in a debate marked by heated exchanges and sometimes bitter accusations.
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Vice President Al Gore
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With the stage lights shining squarely on them at the Apollo Theater in New York's Harlem district, the two rivals discussed race issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, affirmative action, disparities in judicial sentencing to African-Americans, in addition to such traditional Democratic issues as gun control, health care and education.
As expected, Bradley attacked Gore for what he called his "conservative congressional record" throughout the 90 minute debate. However, the vice president seemed to not only unfazed by the verbal barrage -- he sometimes baited his rival.
Bradley's took numerous shots at the vice president, including claims that Gore attempted to dismantle affirmative action, supported tobacco payments over education and while in the Senate, attempted to preserve the tax-exempt status of schools such as Bob Jones University, a conservative Christian school in South Carolina that bans interracial dating among other prohibitive policies.
"You have to face up to this if you're going to be a strong leader," Bradley chastised the vice president.
"You're sounding a little desperate because you're trying to build yourself up," Gore shot back. "It's very clear."
"I believe that we need a strong president that is not going to back away from affirmative action," Bradley said at one point during the debate.
The lead-off question, asked by activist Al Sharpton, pertained to police brutality and the very public case of Amadou Diallo, who was shot more than 20 times by New York police as he went to retrieve his wallet.
"Many in our community have to live in fear of both the cops and the robbers," Sharpton said. "What concrete steps would you take to end police brutality and racial profiling?"
Saying he was outraged by the incident, Bradley vowed to issue an executive order prohibiting racial profiling -- and as he has before, needled the vice president as to why he has not "walked down the hall" to President Bill Clinton's office to urge the president to do the same thing.
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Former Sen. Bill Bradley
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"I would say quite clearly that white Americans can no longer deny the plight of black Americans," Bradley said.
Of the Diallo shooting, he said: "I also think it reflects racial profiling in the sense that seeps into the mind of someone so that he sees a wallet in the hands of a white man as a wallet, but a wallet in the hands of a black man as a gun."
Not do be outdone, Gore promised that the "first civil rights act of the 21st century would be a law outlawing racial profiling ... in insurance and in banking, inside school rooms and inside people's hearts."
"I think we have to do a lot," Gore said of the race issue. "We have to say that we will become one people by putting as much money into education as we do into incarceration."
And in aiming to get a rise out of Bradley, Gore claimed,
"Look we have taken action, but you know racial profiling practically began in New Jersey, Senator Bradley."
From there, the debate opened up in a free-for all between the Democratic rivals, as Bradley charged that Gore tried to end affirmative action programs and Gore asserted that Bradley's health care plan would leave millions of minorities without health insurance.
Even the Republican presidential candidates were not spared, as a question regarding the flying of the Confederate flag over the South Carolina capitol caused Gore to say:
"It is the everlasting embarrassment of the modern Republican party that both candidates ... went to South Carolina and were scared to say anything about the confederate flag. I think that was a very serious mistake."
Moderated by CNN's Bernard Shaw, the debate allowed for questions from the audience, the Internet and a panel of journalists.
When asked whether he believed African-Americans were owed reparations, Gore said: "I believe the best reparations is a good education and affirmative action to make available the direct assistance that has been denied."
"I believe we still need affirmative action in this country," Gore added. "The average African-American family wealth is less than one tenth that of the average white family wealth. To me that justifies making available capital for young entrepreneurs and making available advancement in every sphere."
Bradley said that "white Americans are in denial of black Americans' contributions through slavery, through Jim Crow (segregation laws) ... and I believe we can change that through a major new investment in education."
"That's not a plan, that's a magic wand and it doesn't work that way," Gore said of Bradley's plan to overhaul Medicaid and provide HIV/AIDS patients with private insurance. "The problem is that the insurance companies don't want to take them. They want to get rid of them."
"What you see is what I call an elaborate Gore dance," Bradley said of Gore's position on the licensing of hand guns. "It is a dance to avoid facing up to your conservative record on guns." He then said that while he was in Congress, Gore was the "poster child" of the NRA.
"You've made personal attack after personal attack. Problem is, these personal attacks don't solve problems," Gore said. "They distract us from the real enemy: the right-wing extremist Confederate flag waving Republicans."
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