Former President Bill Clinton got emotional when confronted by a group of Black Lives Matter protesters in Philadelphia Thursday, getting into a heated exchange with the activists while campaigning for his wife's 2016 presidential bid.At issue was the Clintons' support for the 1994 crime bill signed into law during his presidency—legislation disproportionately affected black males, and which played a big role in driving up US incarceration rates in the subsequent decades. According to CNN, the protesters shouted that "black youth are not super-predators" at the president, an apparent reference to Hillary Clinton's 1996 remark that those affected by the law were "often the kinds of kids that are called 'super-predators,'" who needed to be "brought to heel.""I like protesters, but the ones that won't let you answer are afraid of the truth," Clinton said, after his speech was interrupted by the Black Lives Matter demonstration. He went on to defend his own record, and when the protesters answered his rebuttal with more shouting, the former president became visibly irritated, zeroing in on his wife's use of the volatile phrase."I don't know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out on the street to murder other African-American children," Clinton snapped. "Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She didn't. You are defending people who kill the lives you say matter."This isn't the first time the "super predator" comment has come up during Hillary Clinton's campaign. In February, after a protester named Ashley Williams showed up at a Clinton campaign event in South Carolina with more or less the same complaint, the 2016 Democratic frontrunner conceded that she regrets using the phrase. "Looking back, I shouldn't have used those words," she told the Washington Post, "and I wouldn't use them today."Needless to say, her husband's remarks today aren't going over well.
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As of this writing, neither the candidate nor her campaign have commented on the former president's remarks.Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.Bill Clinton's comments don't surprise me at all. Hillary already cleaned up the black vote in the south so now he can tell their truth.
— Travon Free (@Travon)April 7, 2016