Jones discusses Clinton’s appeal to Black voters

Pennsylvania’s presidential primary is a week away and on the Democratic side, a battle wages between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the support of African-American voters.

Hillary Clinton has been working off longstanding ties to the community, some of which were cultivated during her husband’s presidency, while Bernie Sanders has had to formally introduce himself.

On Monday, Clinton spoke directly to a predominantly black audience on WURD, which is the only African-American owned and operated talk radio station in Pennsylvania, and one of a handful around the country. The former Secretary of State and current Democratic frontrunner spoke with Solomon Jones, WURD’s morning host and a frequent Newsworks contributor.

While the African-American community has traditionally been supportive of the Clintons, Sanders has begun to draw support from younger minority voters, and it has led to some interesting exchanges between the candidates’ supporters.

“Those who like Hillary, liked Hillary and those who like Bernie were negative and negative in a mean way,” Jones said of those who called in to the show. “What I’m noticing about a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters, especially online, is that they’re very active but they seem kind of angry.

“He is drawing an angry voter,” he added. “I think that it’s very indicative of what is happening in the race overall, because you see Trump drawing that angry voter on the right and you have Sanders drawing that angry voter on the left.”

Jones said both Clinton and Sanders have been running ads on WURD. Jones kept the interview focused on issues pertinent to the Black community.

“I didn’t ask her about her e-mails or Libya because we don’t care,” Jones said. “I think with most of our listeners, that’s a side show. We want to know what you’re going to do for the black community and how you’re going to achieve it. The rest of the stuff doesn’t matter because all of [the candidates] have skeletons.”

For more on what Hillary Clinton said to Solomon Jones, you can listen to the interview with Jennifer Lynn by pressing play at the top of the page.