During MSNBC’s live coverage of the Georgia Senate runoff election, race hustler and longtime PoliticsNation host Al Sharpton reveled in the possible victories of Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock by insisting that he and his fellow civil rights activists are “nonpartisan” individuals concerned about the direction of the country.
Former liberal Republican-turned-leftist and MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace introduced Sharpton by insisting that the election has not only hinged on “issues of...race” and “issues of identity,” but also “how extraordinarily disciplined the candidates on the Democratic side have been.”
Ah, yes. It was rather “disciplined” that Ossoff dismissed real questions about having his coffers lined by China and Warnock laughed off scandals on child abuse and domestic violence.
“While Loeffler and Perdue ended up on three sides of the two-sided debate on stimulus chucks, they ran forward-looking positive campaigns. They were never baited into any of the ridiculous, infighting on the Republican,” she added.
After bragging about Ossoff and Warnock making history as the first Jewish and black Georgia senators respectively, Sharpton informed viewers that he’s not actually a Democrat or a progressive:
So, this is not just partisan politics. This is about where policy and where legislation is going to go. It's not about individuals and it's not about party politics. It's about the direction of the country in a post-Trump era where Trump, through a lot of the voting rights lawsuits the Justice Department had under Obama and certainly supported the end of a lot of police reform, so a lot of us in the civil rights community that are nonpartisan at least broadly are clearly looking at this race for policy and legislative reasons.
A few minutes later, Sharpton signed off by quipping that he’ll be “taking off my reading glasses to see if Rachel will call me adorable.”
Um, what?
Things got even weirder:
WALLACE: She thinks you're adorable. I'm going to send it back to her. Rachel, you've been invoked on the reading glasses.
MADDOW: I have. I’m — I feel like I'm not sure that my faith allows me to call a reverend adorable.
WALLACE: I'll do it.
MADDOW: But I’ll call you anything else you want.
WALLACE: I’ll do it. Rev, you're adorable.
SHARPTON: Thank you. Thank you. I will permit you to call me adorable, Rachel. I will give you that.
MADDOW: Okay. I'm absolved, you are adorable, Rev. Good. Excellent. The reason we're all taking our reading glasses on and off is because we are all clicking refresh, refresh, refresh, and watching these results come in.
To paraphrase one of MSNBC’s slogans, this is who they are.
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To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from January 5, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Georgia Runoffs: Fight for the Senate
January 5, 2021
9:51 p.m. EasternNICOLLE WALLACE: Rev, when we spoke, I don't know, what was it, six hours ago, it was on the breaking news out of Kenosha, which obviously is one of the backdrops against which this election takes place, around not just issues of — of race, Stacey Abrams said earlier this evening that issues of identity and speaking to under represented communities has been central, not just in the special but in the general election. And something that's been remarked on tonight is how extraordinarily disciplined the candidates on the Democratic side have been. While Loeffler and Perdue ended up on three sides of the two-sided debate on stimulus chucks, they ran forward-looking positive campaigns. They were never baited into any of the ridiculous, infighting on the Republican and I wonder what you make of the historic natures of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff’s candidacies..
AL SHARPTON: I — I clearly think that we’re looking at history, whatever the results are and you look at the fact that you have an African-American and Jewish-American really being competitive and very possibly victorious in Georgia —
WALLACE: Yeah.
SHARPTON: — a state that has been one of the lynch pins of segregation and one of the key states that mastered voter suppression, I think is historic. The implications of the race is that we're looking at, as you talked about the Blake decision today in Kenosha, I just did an a eulogy in Columbus, Ohio today at the funeral of a young man killed, unarmed, Andre Hill. It brings to bear that we need an attorney general and a Justice Department where the Senate will decide that. So, this is not just partisan politics. This is about where policy and where legislation is going to go. It's not about individuals and it's not about party politics. It's about the direction of the country in a post-Trump era where Trump, through a lot of the voting rights lawsuits the Justice Department had under Obama and certainly supported the end of a lot of police reform, so a lot of us in the civil rights community that are nonpartisan at least broadly are clearly looking at this race for policy and legislative reasons.
WALLACE: Rev, our colleague, Lawrence O’Donnell, made a very smart point earlier in the night. And I wonder if you agree. He said that he thought that it was likely that President-Elect Biden was waiting for the results of tonight's runoffs in Georgia to make his selection to the Justice Department. Do you agree with that, and how do you think the results will impact it? And if you could name names, we're always grateful to hear that.
SHARPTON: Well, I mean, I would — I would suspect that Lawrence is probably right. I have no way of knowing that. We met with the President-Elect and the Vice President-Elect, as you know, virtually, with seven national civil rights groups, and we urged him to select carefully an attorney general. I said I preferred a black, but at least have someone with a voting rights background and a police reform background. And we'll see. I think that what happens tonight will say a lot to the President-Elect, because he will know whether he has a senate that he's going to have to fight to get confirmation or not. And I think the decision of what happened with Blake in Kenosha and what has happened with the shooting death of an unarmed man in Columbus, Ohio, I think — Mr. Hill, I think will have to factor in. Joe Biden is sensitive enough to know that what he's choosing is not someone he likes but who is needed to protect American citizens at this point in history.
WALLACE: The Reverend Al Sharpton, thank you so much for joining us. I’m going to send it back to my colleague —
SHARPTON: I'm taking off my reading glasses to see if Rachel will call me adorable.
WALLACE: She thinks you're adorable. I'm going to send it back to her. Rachel, you've been invoked on the reading glasses.
MADDOW: I have. I’m — I feel like I'm not sure that my faith allows me to call a reverend adorable.
WALLACE: I'll do it.
MADDOW: But I’ll call you anything else you want.
WALLACE: I’ll do it. Rev, you're adorable.
SHARPTON: Thank you. Thank you. I will permit you to call me adorable, Rachel. I will give you that.
MADDOW: Okay. I'm absolved, you are adorable, Rev. Good. Excellent. The reason we're all taking our reading glasses on and off is because we are all clicking refresh, refresh, refresh, and watching these results come in.
