Bill Clinton: 'We Are All Mixed-Race People'

He says Obama did a better job than he gets credit for
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 15, 2016 2:54 AM CST
Bill Clinton: 'We Are All Mixed-Race'
Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for his wife in Cincinnati on Friday.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

"We're all mixed race," Bill Clinton told Hillary supporters in Memphis a few days ago in remarks that are getting some belated attention from the media. The human genome has revealed that "unless your ancestors, every one of you, are 100%, 100% percent from sub-Saharan Africa, we are all mixed-race people," is specifically what he said, per the New York Post, which calls the remarks an attempt to "downplay President Obama's historic presidency." NBC News, however, notes that the remarks came after Rep. Steve Cohen introduced Clinton to the mixed crowd as somebody who wasn't the first black president but made "a heck of a stand-in."

Clinton told the Thursday night rally that science has shown that people are genetically 99.5% the same, but people are "fixated" on the 0.5% that's different, the Commercial Appeal reports. "So what we need now is to say: 'How can we act like we're all 99.5% the same?'" he asked. Clinton got a huge ovation for praising both Obama's performance and Hillary's "change-making" prowess. "She's always making something good happen. She's the best change-maker I've ever known," he said, per Mediaite. "A lot of people say, you don't understand. It's different now. It's rigged. Yeah, it's rigged because you don't have a president who is a change-maker with a Congress who will work with him. But the president has done a better job than he has gotten credit for. And don't you forget it!" (More Bill Clinton stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X