Gore, Bradley Take Gloves Off in Heated Debate on Race Issues

Vice President Al Gore and Bill Bradley quarreled on the stage of Harlem’s Apollo Theater Monday night in their most combative debate yet, challenging each other over affirmative action, gun control and a range of urban and social policies.

Angrily addressing each other, the candidates spent as much time debating their campaign conduct and character as they did discussing solutions to the nation’s ills.

The disagreements began in the first five minutes when Bradley complained that Gore failed to press the Clinton administration to take steps to end racial profiling by law enforcement groups.

Gore responded with a quick reference to Bradley’s home state. “Look, racial profiling practically began in New Jersey,” he said, prompting a loud reaction from a celebrity-packed audience that included film director Spike Lee, actress Whoopi Goldberg, attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and several professional sports stars.

Bradley, moments later, waved a sheaf of papers toward Gore. The former senator from New Jersey said they documented Gore’s votes in Congress supporting tax-exempt status to schools that discriminate on the basis of race.

“I’d like you to have it now, Al,” Bradley said. Gore refused to accept the papers from Bradley’s outstretched hand.

Rather, Gore said he opposed a tax exemption for Bob Jones University in South Carolina, a fundamentalist Christian school. That university lost its tax exempt status in 1970 for banning interracial dating or marriage. “That is a phony and scurrilous charge,” Gore told Bradley.

The 90-minute debate on the stage of the historic Apollo Theater in the cultural and commercial heart of New York’s African American community included questions from audience members, Internet e-mail and journalists. The forum was dominated by questions about economic disparity and the criminal justice system.

Bradley, whose underdog campaign has recently targeted the core Democratic voters that have powered Gore’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, sought to portray the vice president as a conservative.

“What you see is an elaborate what I call ‘Gore dance,’ ” Bradley said. “It is a dance to avoid facing up to your conservative record.”

Gore responded: “The problem is these attacks don’t solve any problems. They do divide us as Democrats. They distract us from the real enemy, the right-wing extremists, Confederate flag-waving Republicans who are trying to roll back the progress that we have made.”

Gore, citing his endorsement by the AFL-CIO and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League and the wide support he has received from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, asked Bradley: “Do you think they all have such poor judgment?”

Bradley, trying to cast himself as a leader who understands the insidious nature of racism, interrogated Gore about his record on issues like affirmative action and promised to challenge white America to confront the “indignities African Americans suffer.”

Gore responded defensively, accusing Bradley of “sounding a little desperate”.

The audience became as much a part of the debate as the candidates, greeting responses with the same enthusiastic cheers or reproachful boos that might otherwise be reserved for the hopeful performers on the famed stage’s amateur night. In their heated responses, both candidates repeatedly ran over the time they were allotted and were reprimanded several times by CNN moderator Bernard Shaw.

Their encounter at the Apollo Theater was the ninth debate between the Democratic candidates and the second time that the rivals have attended a forum focused on issues of particular concern to minorities in America.

The New York primary is scheduled for March 7, the same day that more than a dozen states including California will cast ballots. Gore’s lead in California has been building and his recent focus on New York suggests he is aiming for a bicoastal sweep he hopes will drive Bradley from the race.

Bradley has vowed to keep up his aggressive tone toward Gore. Aides said he will give a critical speech today at a Long Island college.

Monday night, the candidates tangled in nasty exchanges at least 20 times. Repeatedly, the topic was affirmative action.

Bradley challenged the record of the Clinton administration, and told Gore: “You have to face up to this if you’re going to be a strong leader.”

They clashed, too, on gun control, with Bradley citing positive comments by the National Rifle Assn. about Gore’s record in Congress.

Gore accused Bradley of launching “personal attack after personal attack.” And he defended his record on gun control, saying the strongest laws in 30 years have passed since the Clinton administration took office in 1993.

He noted that, as vice president, he cast a tiebreaking vote in the Senate closing a gun law loophole. And he charged that when the vote was cast, Bradley, who was retired from the Senate at the time, was attending a fund-raiser.

“Where were you?” Gore asked.

Bradley accused Gore of mumbling his response to questions about his gun control proposals to hide his limited plans. Gore responded: “By all means, get the negativity off your chest. But when you’re through, let’s return to face real problems.”

When Bradley raised questions about Gore’s role in the Clinton administration’s controversial fund-raising in 1996, the vice president shot back: “Sen. Bradley, you must be the only Democrat in America who misses Ken Starr.” Starr was the independent counsel who investigated President Clinton.

Bradley was asked what he thought the answer was to the questions of character he aimed at Gore. He responded: “I have told you what I think the answer is. It’s to nominate me.”

But Bradley did say at another point that if Gore is the party’s nominee, he would support the vice president.

Both candidates called on Americans to rise above the country’s legacy of racism and discrimination.

Bradley, who as senator delivered several speeches that focused on the state of race relations when few white politicians were addressing the issue, demanded that the country confront “white skin privilege.”

“We have to have elected officials that will challenge white America to stop denying the plight of black America,” the former NBA basketball player said.

Gore, who has worked aggressively to court support from minority communities and reaped the endorsements of many African American political leaders, promised that race relations would be one of his top priorities.

“Who we are as people will be determined as much as anything else by how we address the challenge of diversity and inclusion and harmony,” the vice president said.

Times staff writer John Johnson contributed to this story.