'I don't see it happening': Trump finally weighs in on reparations- calling it an 'unusual debate' - but doesn't say whether he believes in payments or a national apology for slavery
Democrats have been discussing reparations for descendants of slaves
They held their first hearing on the issue in more than a decade on Juneteenth, the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is the sponsor of legislation to study reparations
Trump sent out a statement on Juneteenth, as president's typically do, but he did not state his position on reparations at the time
He said in a Monday evening interview that he doesn't 'see it happening' but did not pick a side
Trump's top opponents in the Democratic race have endorsed Jackson Lee's study but have varying opinions on the topic of payments for slavery
By Francesca Chambers, Senior White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com
President Trump says he can't envision a scenario in which the federal government agrees to write checks to the descendants of slavery - touching on a movement that that's afoot within the Democratic Party.
He did not say whether he favors reparations. He instead said,'I don't see it happening.'
'I think it's a very unusual thing,' Trump told The Hill in a Monday interview.'You have a lot of — it's been a very interesting debate. I don't see it happening, no.'
Democrats want the federal government to study the issue and possibly provide financial reparations African Americans as a means of apologizing for and attempting to offset the generational effects of slavery.
Nearly every leading presidential candidate within the party has endorsed legislation authorizing a federal study of reparations, although their positions vary on government payments.
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is spearheading a push in the House to study the issue of reparations. She says her bill would 'make recommendations concerning any form of apology and compensation to begin the long delayed process of atonement for slavery.'
She said a Capitol Hill hearing last week that African-Americans 'are the only group that can singularly claim to have been slaves under the auspices of the United States government,' and they have never received an apology.
She said the hearing that coincided with Juneteenth, the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, 'is not a symbolic action,' but about legislation that should be signed into law.
'I just simply ask: Why not and why not now?' she said to the packed hearing room, which had people lined up outside waiting to get in.
'Slavery is the original sin. Slavery has never received an apology,' she argued.
Cory Booker led a parade of prominent African-Americans in testifying to Congress on the need for reparations for descendants of slaves at the Wednesday hearing and argued amends were needed to get rid of a 'stain' on the country.
'We, as a nation, have not yet to truly acknowledge and grapple with the racism and white supremacy that tainted this country's founding and continues to cause persistent and deep racial disparities and inequality,' Booker, who's competing for the 2020 presidential nomination, said.
'The stain of slavery was not just inked in bloodshed but in policies that have disadvantaged African Americans for generations,' he noted.
Cory Booker led a parade of prominent African Americans in testifying on the need for reparations for descendants of slaves at a Capitol Hill hearing last week. He's running for president
Actor Danny Glover, right, and author Ta-Nehisi Coates, left, testify about reparations
Booker, actor Danny Glover, and author Ta-Nehisi Coates were among those testifying at the nearly 3-hour hearing on Capitol Hill.
'I sit here as the great grandson of a former slave who was freed by the Emancipation proclamation. I had the fortune of meeting him as a small child,' Glover told the lawmakers.
The hearing held by Democrats was the first of its kind in more than a decade, putting the spotlight on the debate about whether the government should compensate descendants of slaves.
Outside the committee room members of the New Black Panther party rallied; inside there were clashes between Democrats and Republicans and one GOP witness spoke through boos.
'It's about time we find the common ground and the common purpose to deal with the ugly past and make sure that generations ahead do not have to continue to mark disparities,' Booker said.
Booker put forward legislation in the Senate to study the reparations issue.
Five other senators seeking the Democratic nomination have signed onto to his effort: Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton put candidates on the spot in April at a New York City conference his organization, National Action Network, was hosting to discuss social issues affecting the black community.
He pressed each candidate to sponsor Jackson Lee's bill to create a commission to study the possibility of federal reparations for slavery.
'I would sign that into law,' the first candidate to get the question, former Texas lawmaker Beto O'Rourke, told him after a speech to the audience.
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Warren also told Sharpton, 'Yes. I would. I already support that bill.'
Harris has backed the idea of a study on the 'effects of generations of discrimination and institutional racism' that would seriously take a look at 'intervention, to correct course.'
But the senator of Jamaican descent has not said whether she thinks the government should make financial payments to slaves' descendants.
'I support that we study them,' she said at a CNN town hall in April. 'When you are talking about the years and years and years of trauma that were experienced because of slavery, because of Jim Crow and because of all that we have seen in terms of institutional and legal discrimination and racism, this is very real and it needs to be studied.'
She did not go further than that and has not clarified her position since.
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper struggled with the question at Sharpton's conference earlier in the month.
'You know I'd look at the opportunity to, to provide every person a real chance at treating their own version of the American Dream as one of the fundamental holdings of this country. One of the reasons we passed, you know, when I was mayor of Denver, we spent 30 months and we got ...'
Unsatisfied audience members cut him off. 'Yes or no,' a woman shouted.
'Yes, I'm gonna pass it, let me get to the point,' he said. 'The one of of those point where you can make reparations is through making sure you've got things like high-quality early childhood education in every single neighborhood in every single school in your community. That's what we did in Denver.'
Sanders said after his speech 'there needs to be a study' after Sharpton prodded him to answer.
'If the House and Senate pass that bill, of course I'd sign it,' he said.
An attendee rebuffed him, too, asking loudly, 'What is there to study?'
Elizabeth Warren has called for Massachusetts has called for a 'national, full-blown conversation' on the issue of reparations. She reaffirmed her position in April at Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference
Sanders noted that Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, agrees that direct payments are not as suitable for the situation as alternatives. Sanders reiterated his belief that the federal government should direct more money to low-income communities for education, jobs and other programs.
Booker said at the time that he supports a study. 'But this conversation cannot just become a political-box checking exercise or a litmus test without meaning,' he argued.
Gillibrand said a lunch-time speech during the conference, 'This is a conversation that is long overdue. So, I want to let you know where I stand. I firmly support Congresswoman Jackson Lee's bill to study reparations. As president, I would advocate to Congress to pass that bill, and I would sign that commission into law.'
She told a hometown crowd, 'This is the first step of acknowledging as a country the 100 years of slavery and institutional racism have caused mass inequity and harm to black people and has held black communities back for generations from achieving their full potential.'
Klobuchar also spoke at the luncheon but she wasn't asked about reparations and she did not bring the topic up.
Joe Biden wasn't a candidate at the time and he hasn't taken a stance on the issue.
EXCLUSIVE: Trump on reparations: 'I don't see it happening' | TheHill
Trump weighs in on reparations for slavery: 'I don't see it happening'
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