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Bill Clinton spars angrily with protesters over crime, welfare bill legacies

During a campaign appearance for his wife on Thursday, a passionate Bill Clinton faced down protesters in Philadelphia as they chanted and held up signs taking issue with the legacy of crime and welfare legislation he oversaw during his time in the White House.

Recalling rampant crime when he took office and the efficacy of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Prevention Act in lowering, the former president remarked of one protester, "She doesn't want to hear any of that. You know what else she doesn't want to hear?"

Clinton then ticked through the record-low murder rates and a 46-year-low in the deaths of people by gun violence during his tenure.

"And who do you think whose lives those were that mattered? Whose lives were saved that mattered?" Clinton said, remarking that his wife did not vote for that bill because she was trying to pass universal health care for children as first lady.

While noting that Bernie Sanders voted for it, Clinton remarked, "I don't blame him either."

A woman then shouted that Clinton should be charged for "crimes against humanity." At another point, a woman yelled, "Hillary Clinton is a murderer."

“See these other signs? This is what’s the matter," Clinton said, referring to people in attendance at a recreation center. "I don’t know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and set ‘em out onto the street to murder other African-American children."

"Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She didn’t," he said, referring to his wife. "She didn’t. You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter. Tell the truth. You are defending the people who caused people to go out and take guns."

Speaking to the NAACP convention in Philadelphia last July, the former president admitted that the law made the issue of mass incarceration worse.

"I signed a bill that made the problem worse, and I want to admit it," he said of the legislation that included a three-strikes provision mandated life sentences for criminals convicted of a violent felony after two or more previous convictions, including drug crimes."

Turning to the signs pertaining to the major welfare reform passed in 1996, Clinton disputed the notion that the bill increased poverty

"Then why do we have the largest drop in African-American poverty in history when I was president? The largest in history," he said, blaming Republicans in state legislatures after he left the White House. “The Republicans took it away, and they’re blaming me. And apparently her, she she had nothing to do with it."

The reason they know it's true, Clinton said, "is because they won't hush."

“When somebody wont hush and listen to you, that ain’t democracy. They’re afraid of the truth. Don’t you be afraid of the truth, don’t you be afraid of the truth," Clinton said, as the shouting continued. "So, if you think it was bad in the 1990s, if you think record increases in income and record low unemployment, record decreases in poverty and record small businesses forming was bad, you ought to go with them. Otherwise, you better elect Hillary president so we can get this economy going again.”

"I love protesters, except when they won't let you answer," Clinton remarked. "It reminds me of when the Republicans tried to blame me for the financial meltdown."