PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS — When former president Bill Clinton came to St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church on Monday to campaign for his wife, he brought a written list of all the ways Hillary Clinton has helped the Caribbean community.
“I have a few notes,” he said in the middle of his speech at the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens parish. “I don’t normally read from them, but I want to talk about this.”
The parish, decorated with the flags of half a dozen Caribbean nations, serves a large congregation of island natives and their families, including co-hosts of Monday's speech, Rep. Yvette Clarke, and her mother, Una; when Barbados’ most famous daughter, Rihanna, lost her grandmother in 2012, the memorial service took place at the Hawthorne Street church before the funeral back on the island.
here's the crowd. check out the flags in the back of the church! #NewYorkValues pic.twitter.com/pJHcaQNhAt
— Rachel H. Smith (@rachelholliday) April 11, 2016
So, with notes in hand, Clinton told the audience at St. Gabriel’s about Hillary's record on Caribbean issues: as a senator, she supported legislation to improve voting access for foreign-language voters and worked to improve health benefits for pregnant immigrant women and their children, he said.
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As Secretary of State, she worked to improve sustainable electricity service in Caribbean nations — where “there’s sunshine 300 days a year,” Clinton said, but uneven access to electricity — under the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, an initiative introduced by President Obama in 2009.
“If the United States is serious, they will do what Hillary started — and the job she wants to finish — liberate [the Caribbean and Americas] from imported oil forever and guarantee them their economic … future,” he told the audience, who cheered as he spoke.
Clinton spoke about his own record, as well, highlighting economic policies — such as programs that made it easier for small businesses to get a loan — that bolstered the middle class.
“We had an explosion in small businesses and we doubled the number of loans in eight years over the previous four [years], for women, African-Americans, Latinos, people who were first generation immigrants,” he said of his administration.
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He kept his remarks, generally, to policy and the importance of voter turnout for New York’s primary on April 19. Besides making vague references to “blaming” and “dividing” on the subject of income inequality, he did not specifically mention his contentious back-and-forth with #BlackLivesMatter protesters on the campaign trail last week over his record on crime policies and its affect on black communities.
Instead, Clarke addressed the controversy for him, sticking up for his record (and endorsing Hillary’s ability to continue his legacy) as she introduced him at the church on Wednesday.
“Oftentimes, it’s easier for us to see the glass half empty than to see it half full. And one of the things that I’m grateful for was the growth in the black middle class during the presidency of the honorable Bill Clinton,” she said to applause.
“Unfortunately, in subsequent presidencies, we’ve seen a retraction of that commitment from government. But I know with the honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, that will cease and she will unleash innovation and access to opportunity that we so richly deserve and that she is so passionate about,” she said.
After Clinton’s appearance, Quincy J. Dover, the church’s organist and choir director, snapped a picture of the former president as he walked to his motorcade on Hawthorne Street. Dover said his priority in the election is health care access for children and Clinton the candidate’s commitment to that has swayed him.
“To be honest, I walked in here undecided between both of them,” he said of Clinton and her opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. “I’m leaning now towards Hillary now.”
Diaz Mussalimov, a professional singer and practicing Muslim who sometimes performs at St. Gabriel’s, hasn’t yet committed to a candidate, but stressed that anyone in office must accept all religions.
“For me, being a Muslim, especially, it’s very important that they support internationalism and welcome everyone to this wonderful place,” he said.
Clinton and Sanders are set to take part in a Democratic debate in Brooklyn on Thursday, which will be televised by CNN from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. As of Monday, organizers of the event told DNAinfo New York the debate will not be open to the public.
