Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE said late Wednesday that he would apologize for slavery if he is elected president.

The Democratic candidate was asked during an event in Philadelphia whether he would make the "necessary and overdue" apology.

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"An American president has yet to muster up the courage to formally apologize for the 400 heinous years of rape, death and inhumanity that occurred during the enslavement of black people in this country that still impacts million of slave descendants," an audience member told Sanders before asking whether he'd apologize for it.

"Want the short answer?" Sanders asked in response. "Yes."

Last year, the Vermont senator said that the nation owes an apology for slavery.

“As a nation — I don’t think as a president, but as a nation — we have got to apologize for slavery,” Sanders said in July.

“As a nation we have got to apologize for slavery, and of course the president is the leader of the nation,” he added.