Following Tuesday night's debate, author Marianne Williamson gave an interview with TMZ where she discussed the exchange she had with CNN moderator Don Lemon onstage.

"There's this political class, it's like a Wizard of Oz type of thing, 'only they can know,'" Williamson said. "A lot of people have serious conversations about what is going on in this country, not just TV pundits and politicians."

Williamson took issue with the framing of Lemon's question during the debate, which inquired about her reparations plan and qualifications to offer a figure on what the moderator called "financial assistance."

 

Williamson responded by saying, “First of all, it’s not $500 billion in 'financial assistance,' it’s a $200-500 billion payment of a debt that is owed; that is what reparations is.” She went on to say, “We need some deep truth-telling…we don’t need another commission to look at the evidence.”

Twitter seemed to agree with her response. 

"If you did the math of the ‘40 acres and a mule,’ given that there were 4 to 5 million slaves at the end of the Civil War and they were all promised 40 acres and a mule for every family of four," Williamson said on the debate stage. "If you did the math today, it would be trillions of dollars.”

Tuesday night's debate was not the first instance where Williamson spoke out on the issue of reparations. In January, she released a video outlining her policy plan for reparations, which calls for $200-500 billion to be allocated to descendants of slavery over the course of 20 years. 


The call for reparations for slavery have gotten much louder, as many are beginning to see the issue as a key proposal to reach Black voters in the 2020 election.

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