COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Democratic presidential candidates on Monday walked shoulder to shoulder through the streets of South Carolina's capital city to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and rally around their push to defeat President Donald Trump in November.
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren shook hands at Zion Baptist Church, then linked arms as they marched with the other candidates later in the morning. The gestures were notable because the two had argued in recent days over their recollections of a private conversation about whether a woman could win the presidency, and Warren had declined to shake Sanders' outstretched hand after last week's debate.
"This is the handshake," said U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.
The sight of Sanders and Warren shoulder to shoulder also delighted Lisa Ray Clarkson, a retired teacher from Norfolk, Va.
"That means they have gotten over their differences and the Democratic Party is reuniting," Clarkson said as she walked alongside the procession to the South Carolina Statehouse, a building steeped in the history of the state's racial struggles. Several thousand people converged there.
Sanders reminded the attendees of King's legacy of courage and opposition to the Vietnam War, which the 78-year-old senator from Vermont had also denounced.
"If we do not allow Trump and his friends to divide us up by the color of our skin, or where we were born, or our sexual orientation or religion, if we stand together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish in the fight for racial justice, social justice," Sanders said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., invoked King's comment that Americans are "all tied in a single garment of destiny -- what affects one directly affects all indirectly," and she said that rising hatred across the nation would ultimately wound everyone.
Addressing Trump directly over his 2017 comment that "both sides" were to blame for violence in Charlottesville, Va., that killed Heather Heyer, who was protesting a white supremacist rally, Klobuchar said: "And no, there are not many sides to blame, Mr. President, when one side is the Ku Klux Klan. There is only one side, and that is the American side. That is it. That is all."
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has said he decided to run in 2020 in response to the violence in Charlottesville, said Trump has "given oxygen" to racism.
Warren, D-Mass., pledged to work toward what she characterized as a more tolerant society, noting that "America is ready to move past this dark moment of Donald Trump."
In his rally speech, California businessman and presidential candidate Tom Steyer said, "This is a time where we have a job: Beat Mr. Trump."
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., marched and attended a prayer service in South Carolina.
"My campaign revolves around the image of the first day that the sun comes up over South Carolina and our country and Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States," Buttigieg said at the Columbia Urban League's annual King breakfast. "I raise the image of that sunrise because it will bring forth the burning question Dr. King posed in the summer of 1967: Where do we go from here?"
Buttigieg left to campaign in Iowa before the speaking program began at the Statehouse.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the lone remaining black candidate in the race, also attended the breakfast.
"If we are really going to deliver a future for our children and grandchildren consistent with the values of equality, opportunity and fair play, to which Dr. King and the Urban League served as examples, then we're going to have to start rejecting false choices," Patrick said, adding: "Prosperity and justice can live alongside each other. The notion that you have to hate business to be a social justice warrior, or hate police to believe black lives matter, are ridiculous."
Tech businessman Andrew Yang is on a 17-day bus tour of Iowa and didn't attend the South Carolina events.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Monday afternoon, pausing in front of the monument and the wreaths to pay their respects. Pence spoke Sunday at a church service in Memphis, where King was assassinated in 1968.
Earlier Monday, Trump posted a tweet noting that Jan. 20 was the third anniversary of his inauguration: "So appropriate that today is also MLK jr DAY. African-American Unemployment is the LOWEST in the history of our Country, by far. Also, best Poverty, Youth, and Employment numbers, ever. Great!"
Black unemployment has reached a record low during the Trump administration, though many economists credit trends in economic growth that began in 2009 under then-President Barack Obama.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is not campaigning in Iowa but has put some of his multimillion-dollar ad spending there, joined the parade down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Little Rock, tossing candy into crowds and posing for pictures.
"Reminds me of New York," Bloomberg quipped.
COMPETING VISIONS
In Atlanta -- home of King's onetime church -- political leaders were wrestling over how to best embody the slain civil-rights leader.
Republicans told a crowd at Ebenezer Baptist Church that they were honoring King's legacy of service and political empowerment.
Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, appointed last month by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to replace the retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, said her upbringing on an Illinois farm was touched by King.
"Dr. King's call to service, to sacrifice, to put others first -- it shaped our home and inspired us to ask what Dr. King asked the world: 'What are you doing for others?'" Loeffler said.
The current pastor at Ebenezer, which King and his father once led, is the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who has hinted that he could run as a Democrat in the November special election race for Loeffler's seat. Warnock, without mentioning Loeffler by name, said that honoring King means more than just voicing "lip service" on one weekend a year.
"Everyone wants to be seen standing where Dr. King stood. That's fine, you're welcome," said Warnock. "But if today you would stand in this holy place, where Dr. King stood, make sure, that come tomorrow, we'll find you standing where Dr. King stood."
Of King, Warnock said that "too many people like to remember him and dismember him at the same time."
The keynote speaker, the Rev. Howard-John Wesley of Alexandria, Va., told attendees that "we have lost the radicality" of King's vision, talking about how King criticized the Vietnam War and the unequal American economy near the end of his life.
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., drew applause when he mentioned Trump's impeachment.
"Our communities are once again finding themselves on the front lines of fighting to protect our very republic," Johnson said. "And it can be easy, brothers and sisters, in moments like these to despair. But even in our darkest hours, the legacy of Dr. King is a hope that dawn will come."
King's daughter Bernice said the holiday should become a day of service.
"A day on is not enough. What we need is a light on, committed to working vigilantly to build the beloved community," she said. "A light on encompasses a commitment not just to service but to systemic change as well."
Information for this article was contributed by Meg Kinnard, Jeff Amy, Andrew DeMillo, Zeke Miller, Bill Barrow and Corey Williams of The Associated Press; and by Stephanie Saul of The New York Times.
A Section on 01/21/2020