Trump slams Biden for role in 1994 crime bill

President Donald Trump on Monday criticized former Vice President Joe Biden for his involvement in passing the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

“Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected. In particular, African Americans will not be able to vote for you,” Trump said in a tweet. “I, on the other hand, was responsible for Criminal Justice Reform, which had tremendous support, and helped fix the bad 1994 Bill!”

“....Super Predator was the term associated with the 1994 Crime Bill that Sleepy Joe Biden was so heavily involved in passing,” Trump added in a second tweet. “That was a dark period in American History, but has Sleepy Joe apologized? No!”

Biden, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, did play a central role in getting the 1994 bill passed, and it has loomed over his presidential bid, with critics saying the bill generated mass incarceration that disproportionately affected minorities.

However, Biden has defended the bill and his role in passing it, and denied that it resulted in mass incarceration, though former President Bill Clinton apologized in 2015 for signing the bill into law, saying he “made the problem worse."

Biden has already been criticized by other 2020 presidential contenders from his own party for his support of the bill, including Sen. Kamala Harris and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called Biden's work on the bill "a huge mistake" during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine