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Sanders and Clinton Supporters Are More Racist Than Kasich and Rubio Supporters: Poll

Supporters hold signs as Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is introduced during a rally Feb. 19, 2016, in Reno, Nev. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
February 26, 2016

Backers of white Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders appear to be far more racist than fans of Republicans Marco Rubio and John Kasich in their attitude toward Abraham Lincoln's freeing of slaves and the forced internment of the Japanese during World War II, according to a YouGov poll released this week.

The poll came to prominence when the New York Times found more than 20 percent of Donald Trump fans expressed opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation. However, USA Today reports, a closer look at the results also showed attitudes from backers of Sanders (9.8 percent opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation) and Clinton (6.2 percent) that were more racist than those supporting Rubio (5.1 percent) and John Kasich (3.2 percent):

According to the poll, backers of Clinton and Sanders, white Democrats, are more likely to disapprove of the Civil-War executive order than supporters of Hispanic Republican Marco Rubio. One in 10 Sanders supporters disapproves of Lincoln’s executive order. Rubio supporters are less likely to disapprove of or have doubts about the landmark civil rights decision than African-Americans themselves.

The same poll finds that Clinton supporters are about 40% more likely than Sanders backers to be fans of Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to round up Japanese-Americans and throw them into "internment camps." Supporters of the two Democrats are both more likely to support the racist policy than Rubio's backers by a margin of 2 to 1. The poll of 2,000 Americans found that 39% of Clinton backers either support the action, for which the U.S. Congress and President Ronald Reagan apologized in 1988, or are unsure of their position. The United States paid reparations to the interred Japanese-Americans.

USA Today deputy editorial page editor David Mastio pointed out the New York Times only focused on the results regarding Trump supporters from the poll. Multiple liberal outlets treated the poll as credible, he wrote, but the results of it were clearly "ludicrous," seeing as nearly one-third of African Americans polled on the Emancipation Proclamation didn't express full support for it:

While The New York Times, Time magazine, Nate Silver's 538 and Ezra Klein's Vox treated the poll as credible, the results are transparently ludicrous. The poll found that almost one-third of African-Americans polled on Lincoln’s executive order to end slavery in the treasonous Confederate States of America either opposed freedom for their ancestors or were not sure what they thought. (More about the YouGov online poll's goofy results here.)