Thread by @jonallendc

A little more on the 1994 crime bill. When the final version went to the House floor, with the assault weapons ban attached, it passed 235-195. Those voting against it were mostly gun-rights supporters in both parties, Rs who wanted it to be tougher and nonwhite Ds. 1/x

The set that voted against it include familiar names such as Reps. John Lewis and Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and Maxine Waters and Bob Dornan of California. It split the Congressional Black Caucus, with southerners more likely in favor. Jim Clyburn voted for it. 2/x

By the time it got to the floor in that final version, it had been through fits and starts over the death penalty and the assault weapons ban. A rule for its consideration had been killed. The House-Senate conference had to write it twice. 3/x

All of the arguments you hear about the bill today were out in the open back then. While some of its proponents may not have believed that it would realize the outcomes it did, there’s evidence —in the form of the contemporaneous debate— that the possibilities were discussed 4/x

The bill, in various forms, was debated for nearly two years before it was enacted. It was more the centerpiece of Bill Clinton’s agenda than health care, which he handed off to Hillary Clinton with a “good luck” message. He had promised to crack down on crime in his campaign.5/x

It was something he needed to get done for his re-elect, even if it helped cost him the House in the midterms. There was only one black member of the Senate at the time, and Democrats in that chamber—including the black Democrat, Carol Mosley-Braun—rushed to aide him. 6/x

Biden led the charge in the Senate, both in writing the bill and in fending off GOP attempts to limit its authorization of money for prevention programs, make its sentencing provisions tougher & kill the gun ban. He also fought a last-ditch GOP push to sink the whole thing. 7/x

When the Senate finally voted on the House-passed conference report, it was adopted 61-38, with 7 Republicans in favor and 2 Democrats opposed.
The two Democrats: liberal Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and conservative Richard Shelby of Alabama (who is now a Republican). 8/x

Clinton wanted to show he was tough on crime, seize that mantle from the GOP. Schumer, then a House member, boasted that the bill would do just that for Ds. And/But Rs were largely in favor of more stringent sentencing and less prevention — “midnight basketball” anyone? 9/x

Biden was not as hawkish on this as Republicans in the Senate, but he was very much in line with the Clinton WH, which was eager to get a crime bill signed and into law that would portray the president as tougher than his predecessor. That was the political imperative 10/x.

It was unmistakable, though, that Biden was proud of what he saw as a new edge to his party in cracking down on crime. “There are 60 new death penalties, brand new--60. There are 70 additional enhancements of penalties; that is, you go to jail longer.” 11/x

“My friend says this bill is a product of the Democrats `bowing to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.'” Biden said. “The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 125,000 new State prison cells.”12/x

“Every time Richard Nixon, when he was running in 1972, would say law and order, the Democratic match or response was law and order with justice, whatever that meant. And I would say, `Lock the SOB's up,’” he said. 13/x

Biden told the Senate he wrote the bill by sitting down with cops and prosecutors and didn’t talk to stakeholders on the left — not Johnson “big society” folks or the ACLU — and positioned himself as the law and order guy. 15/x

For some people, that’s a feature of Biden’s candidacy, for others it’s a bug. Presumably it’s more the latter in the primary and more the former in a general. 15/x

But it’s not accurate to look at the ‘94 crime bill debate and see Biden as either the lawmaker who was most hawkish on crime or as one who didn’t intend for his law to lock more people up for longer. Nor is it accurate to suggest Congress was blindsided by the outcomes. 16/x

The politics may have changed on the crime bill but the record has not. 17/17