Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersJacobin editor: Primarying Schumer would force him to fight Trump's SCOTUS nominee Trump campaign plays up Biden's skills ahead of Cleveland debate: 'He's actually quite good' Young voters backing Biden by 2:1 margin: poll MORE's (I-Vt.) campaign has reportedly reached out to Black Lives Matter activists to potentially set up a face-to-face meeting in Washington.

Shortly before Sanders spoke on the issue of racism at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday, BuzzFeed News reported his campaign had floated having "a more formal interaction" with BLM advocates.

"I apologize it took our campaign so long to officially reach out," Sanders's African-American outreach director, Marcus Ferrell, emailed a group of activists associated with the movement.

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"We wanted to let you know that we hear you, we want to do a better job speaking out on the issues, and as a sitting U.S. Senator, possibly introducing legislation and making a constitutional change," Ferrell wrote in the email published by BuzzFeed.

A spokesman for Sanders's campaign did not immediately return an inquiry about the email.

The email inquires about setting up a preliminary conversation to discuss a potential face-to-face between Sanders and the group "within the next month" in Washington, D.C.

Publication of the email came moments before Sanders appeared on stage at the Iowa State Fair to deliver his soapbox speech, where he praised the "courage" of Iowans voting for Barack Obama in 2008.

"We still have a long way to go," Sanders told the large crowd gathered.

"You are looking at a candidate who, if elected president, will do everything that he can to end the stain of racism and institutional racism in this country and bring about major criminal justice reforms," he said.

During a speech the previous night, Sanders cast himself as the Democratic presidential candidate who would fight the hardest to end racism amid a series of police-involved deaths involving black Americans.

"No one will fight harder than I will to end racism in America and to reform our broken criminal justice system," Sanders said at a major Iowa Democratic gathering on Friday.

Sanders has stressed the issue after having two public appearances in the past several weeks get derailed by protesters with the Black Lives Matter movement.