While endorsing democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton yesterday, influential politician and civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) took a moment to question Sen. Bernie Sanders’s past.
According to NBC News, Rep. Lewis called out Sanders, who has said he was heavily involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, saying that it was suspicious that their paths had never crossed.
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“I never saw him,” Rep. Lewis said. “I never met him. I was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for three years, from 1963 to 1966. I was involved in the sit-ins, the freedom ride, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery and directed the board of education project for six years… But I met Hillary Clinton. I met President Clinton.”
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Sanders has been outspoken about his involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. He has said that he was arrested in college while attempting to desegregate housing through the Congress on Racial Equality. He also attended the 1963 March on Washington.
“Bernie is a great admirer of Congressman Lewis,” a campaign spokesman told NBC news in response to Rep. Lewis’s comments.