Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton refuse to call Donald Trump racist
MIAMI, Florida -- Is Donald Trump a racist?
Pressed on the question early on at the Democratic here Wednesday night, neither Bernie Sanders nor Hillary Clinton would say yes. But they didn't quite say no, either.
Clinton said there would be plenty of time to talk about Trump during the general election. But she did call Trump "un-American" for his proposals to deport undocumented immigrants and bar Muslims from entering the country.
"His trafficking in prejudice and paranoia has no place in our political system, especially from someone running for president who couldn't decide whether or not to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke. So people can draw their own conclusions about him," Clinton explained.
Still, she would not call him a racist. And neither would her opponent.
Sanders said that the American people are "never" going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, Muslims, women and African-Americans. He reminded the crowd that Trump was a major player in the birther movement, which pressured President Obama to show birth certificate in the early years of his administration. And Sanders noted that no one has ever demanded to see his birth certificate, even though his father was, like Obama's, an immigrant.
"Maybe it has something to with the color of my skin," Sanders said, echoing comments he often makes on the campaign trail.
Both candidates often hammer Trump and have ratcheted up their attacks on the GOP frontrunner in recent weeks. Sanders' go-to lines are "love trumps hate" and "togetherness trumps divisiveness." Clinton, meanwhile, presses the idea that America has never stopped being great, in contrast to Trump's campaign slogan.
"We do need to make America whole again," Clinton often says on the stump. "Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers."