Russell Simmons endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Friday because he said Sen. Bernie Sanders is “insensitive to the plight of black people.”
In an interview on “CNN Newsroom With Carol Costello,” Simmons said, “I think Sen. Clinton has been sensitive, supportive of a progressive agenda. She’s realistic in what she can get done. She’s able to beat the Republican candidate, and I think that Bernie Sanders would not be able to or could lose. And I don’t want to take that chance.”
Simmons, the cofounder of Def Jam Records, was asked by Costello if he would be endorsing anyone for president, and he said, “Yes, I’ve just decided to endorse my longtime friend, Sen. Clinton.”
“I think that Bernie Sanders is over-promising. He’s insensitive to the plight of black people, and what good is it if you don’t take lobbyists money and you don’t acknowledge the number one threat to America and to the world is the factory farming lobby?”
“Because it is poisoning the planet quickly, and it is poisoning its inhabitants. So the shift has to be made away from the animal product, away from the beef industry specifically, but all the animal products into a plant-based diet, or there will be no planet, and in the next 50 years we won’t even have an ocean. And when the oceans die, we die. So we must change the rate at which we consume animals, and we cannot have a lobbyist take advantage of all our natural resources in order to poison the planet and its people.”
Arguing that when he asked Sen. Sanders about his views on the factory farming lobby, Simmons said, “[H]e brushed it off, even though he knows your earthquake and certainly all of these storms are a result of factory farming. We now have all the proof in the world that climate change is man-made, and we have to do something to derail it. So that to me, aside from his insensitivity to black voters, caused me to support Hillary Clinton, who I think can win.”
Costello followed up, “Do you really think Bernie Sanders is insensitive to the needs of the black community?”
“Yes,” Simmons said. “He’s insensitive in a number of ways, and I would get into it if we had time, but I think Sen. Clinton has been sensitive, supportive of a progressive agenda. She’s realistic in what she can get done. She’s able to beat the Republican candidate, and I think that Bernie Sanders would not be able to or could lose. And I don’t want to take that chance.
