- Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro took a swipe at Bernie Sanders over not backing reparations for descendants of slaves.
- Castro also criticized Sanders' other policy positions, suggesting his solutions were to "write a big check."
- Sanders had previously said he would not entertain financial compensation for slavery descendants, but would try to empower the black community in other ways.
Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro knocked 2020 rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont over his positions that could be costly to American taxpayers on Sunday, saying the solution cannot be to just "write a big check."
During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper on Sunday, Castro also addressed the 2020 campaign issue of reparations for descendants of slavery.
"What I said was that I've long believed that this country should address slavery, the original sin of slavery, including by looking at reparations," he said. "If I'm president, then I'm going to appoint a commission other task force to determine the best way to do that."
Sanders has ruled out reparations in the form of "just writing out a check" during a February appearance on ABC's "The View."
"I think what we have got to do is pay attention to distressed communities: black communities, Latino communities, and white communities, and as president, I pledge to do that," Sanders said.
But on Sunday, Castro dismissed Sanders' position that reparations cannot be solved just by doling out money, while also slamming him for his other policy positions.
"There's a tremendous amount of disagreement on how we would do that, but let me say something about Senator Sanders's response there. He was also asked this question in 2016. What he said on 'The View' the other day, I think, he didn't think the best way to address this was for the United States to write a check."
"To my mind that may or may not be the best way to address it. However, it's interesting to me that when it comes to 'Medicare for all,' health care, you know the response has we need to write a big check, that when it comes to tuition-free or debt-free college, the answer has been we need to write a big check," Castro added. "So if the issue is compensation think the argue about writing a big check ought to be the argument you make if you're making the argument that a big check needs to be written for a whole bunch of other stuff."