Rev. Sharpton on Race: I'm Not Divisive, 'I'm Exposing the Divisiveness'

April 20th, 2013 3:23 PM

On Thursday’s “Keepin’ It Real” radio show, the Rev. Al Sharpton was unhappy with CNN reporter John King wrongly claiming a suspect in custody for the Boston bombings was a “dark-skinned male.”

Sharpton insisted he wasn’t the divider, he was the uniter: “tweeters say ‘oh Rev. Al you’re being divisive.’ No, he’s divisive when he brings up dark-skinned. I’m exposing the divisiveness. Don’t get confused.” He was getting cocky:

You ought not cast suspicion on all dark skinned men until we find out and know what it is that they have and in fact have arrested somebody. It’s one thing to say that somebody’s a suspect. It’s another thing to say you have them in custody and that’s who they are and you’re going to say they’re dark skinned, but you’re not going to say other things that they told you. Well then why did you have to say they were dark skinned?

He claimed that there were several things he was told, but he withheld some. Well why didn’t you withhold that? What was pertinent about saying that? And then of course your right wingers and your twe I I I wou I re-tweeted one of these crazy tweets so people understand the kind of hate tweets we get all the time. But tweeters say ‘oh Rev. Al you’re being divisive.’ No, he’s divisive when he brings up dark-skinned. I’m exposing the divisiveness. Don’t get confused.

It took no time at all for Sharpton to prove he’s divisive, suggesting in the next hour that the NRA is supportive of terrorists buying guns at gun shows, referring to an old tape of American jihadist Adam Gadahn claiming “You can go down to a gun show and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check.”

Sharpton said, “You have a tape I played it on my television show of a leader of Al-Qaeda saying ‘you can go in America you can go in a gun show you can buy guns with no ID what are you waiting for? ‘ So, I mean this is crazy. They’ve claimed to be against terrorism, this helps terrorism.”