- Valerie Jarrett spoke out about the stop-and-frisk policing controversy dogging Michael Bloomberg’s campaign in an interview Thursday
- The senior adviser to former President Barack Obama said she participated in a recent call between Bloomberg and a group of black business leaders
- The call was prompted by a resurfaced video in which Bloomberg adamantly defended use of stop-and-frisk in minority communities in 2015
- Jarrett said Bloomberg apologized for his comments, as he has done publicly
- ‘He said look, he inherited it, it got way out of control on his watch, and then he reduced it dramatically,’ Jarrett said
Valerie Jarrett, a longtime adviser to former President Barack Obama, says Michael Bloomberg ‘needs to do a lot more than just apologize’ for his past support of controversial stop-and-frisk policing.
The 2020 presidential hopeful’s campaign has been dogged by the issue after a video resurfaced last week in which he adamantly defended use of stop-and-frisk in minority communities in 2015.
Jarrett revealed in a CBS This Morning interview on Thursday that she recently participated in call with Bloomberg and African American business leaders, who confronted the former New York City mayor about the issue.
‘We were very concerned about the impact that had on so many black families right here in New York,’ she said.
‘He apologized as he had done publicly, and he said look, he inherited it, it got way out of control on his watch, and then he reduced it dramatically.’
Jarrett said she encouraged Bloomberg’s campaign to do more than just apologize for the policy, which saw hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers stopped and searched by police without warrants, with blacks and Latinos disproportionately targeted.
‘One of the things I recommended is, why don’t you sit down with some of the families who were impacted by it?’ she said.
‘And look, even families who weren’t impacted were worried about what would happen to their son, and so I think there’s a lot more conversation to be had.’