While tens of millions of Americans prepared to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, MSNBC's PoliticsNation host Al Sharpton conducted a race-baiting, impeachment-related interview. He invited Black Lives Matter activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham and MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan on to discuss the implications of the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
Sharpton was particularly outraged about the 45th President's defense attorneys’ purported tactic of playing video footage from recent BLM protests that devolved into violent and extremely destructive riots — often encouraged by activists or elected officials on the left— in order to demonstrate the double standard present with respect to the left's general failure to condemn violence.
The incendiary host falsely contended that he, other civil rights activists, and Democratic politicians have never “called on violence”:
"I have been involved in marches and demonstrations for years, all the way up till now. You have been involved for the last several years, but I don't think any of us has ever been accused of trying to have an insurrection or have called on violence, even if some violence happened days away from us, where you directly could even try to conjure this up — let alone on members of Congress."
Indeed, Sharpton has not only called for violence, but has justified violence as well. During the 1991 Crown Heights Riots, he's remembered for saying "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house." Then Sharpton opposed holding violent and destructive thugs accountable: “We must not reprimand our children for outrage, when it is the outrage that was put in them by an oppressive system.”
Then there was Freddy's Fashion Mart in 1995, a row over a Jewish store owner who had a conflict with a black neighbor. Sharpton said "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business," As Rich Lowry noted, a protester in that case eventually shot his way through the store and burned the place down, killing eight people.
Similarly, prominent Democratic officials such as Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) called for harassment and accosting of former Trump administration officials, and, in an interview, then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris ominously warned that everyone should “beware, because [the protestors] are not gonna stop.”
Cunningham unapologetically defended the BLM protests and recited that “93% of those protests from over the summer were without incident,” according to an independent analysis.
Suppose that — likely inaccurate and manipulated — statistic was true. You’d assume, then, that Cunningham took responsibility for and denounced the other seven percent, right? Nope. Instead, she blamed “the same kinds white supremacists that marched the Capitol on January 6th” — despite the fact that virtually everyone seen looting and calling for violence and destruction during the apotheosis of the George Floyd riots was black.
"So instead of worrying about a peaceful nonviolent movement that will continue to push for our rights, Congress should be worried about passing a bill for $2,000 monthly survival checks for the American people," deflected Cunningham "They should be worried about ending a pandemic that has killed nearly half a million people in a year, starting today."
Sharpton, of course, didn’t push back against Cunningham’s disingenuous and irrational answer or ask her to expound upon it. In fact, to conclude the segment, he nodded approvingly of Cunningham’s response, called her an “activist extraordinaire,” and thanked her for appearing.
The left talks incessantly about accountability, but never with regard to the actions of its own members. If Trump was responsible for the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, then the agitators within the Democrat Party are absolutely responsible for the violence and property damage that occurred this past summer.
MSNBC’s race-baiting, blatant Black Lives Matter activism, and clever omission of facts was brought to you, in part, by T-Mobile. You can contact this advertiser, and others, via the Conservatives Fight Back page, conveniently linked here.
Click "Expand" to read the entire February 7 transcript:
MSNBC PoliticsNation
02/07/21
5:15 PM
AL SHARPTON: Switching now to talk about this week’s upcoming impeachment of the former president, Donald Trump, joining me now is my panel Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Black Lives Matter activist and an MSNBC contributor, and Elise Jordan, former aide to George W. Bush in the White House and an MSNBC political analyst. Elise, let me go to you first. All previous impeachments, including the first Trump impeachment, have included everyday legal charges like obstruction of justice or perjury, and while those are serious crimes, particularly from a president, we have never seen anything like this Trump charge, incitement to insurrection. Do you think we have lost sight of the seriousness of the crime in all of the political maneuvering around the trial?
ELISE JORDAN [MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR]: Absolutely. I mean, you go back to the day of the January 6th insurrection, and what did Donald Trump say to his supporters at a Stop the Steal rally shortly before this Capitol was stormed? He said, “If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.” If that isn't incitement, I don't know what is. I think going into this impeachment, you see the American public overwhelmingly does support it. It's a narrow majority, but there's a new ABC poll that about 56% of those polled think that, yes, Donald Trump deserves to be impeached and that furthermore, he should be censored and banned from further, from, holding higher office in the future. I do hope that the seriousness of the moment is appreciated, not lost in all of the political chaos, because, this is, what happened a month ago cannot ever be deemed acceptable for an American leader to get away with inciting a coup.
SHARPTON: Brittany, the first trump impeachment trial, he came into the proceedings with ten lawyers and a straight party-line vote in the House. This time around, though, former president has just two lawyers and ten Republicans joined Democrats in the impeachment vote. How does that change dynamic, if at all, to you?
BRITTANY CUNNINGHAM [BLM ACTIVIST]: Well, before I get started, I have to say, happy Colin Kaepernick appreciation day. But I do think that these distinctions really matter, because Donald Trump's team is shrinking. There are fewer people, as has already been said, that actually believe what he says is true. And are willing to stake their professional reputations on it. But here's what's more important, that we continue to deal with what the left hand is doing while always being careful to watch what the right hand is doing. Donald Trump is not someone who is going to just choose one strategy in trying to defeat this insurrection charge. He's going to continue to try to engage in a rehabilitation tour, as are the rest of his ilk, around the country so that he can plant the seeds not only for him to continue to make money and potentially run for office again, but for the GOP to continue to rise again in ways we are seen over the last couple years. It's going to be critically important that we make sure we have six in one hand and half a dozen in the others, and all of it requires our attention.
[…]
SHARPTON: Well, Brittany, you know, it is interesting to me, they say they're going to play some Democrats and some of the sporadic violence that happened last year. And they are planning to reportedly use that for their defense. I have been involved in marches and demonstrations for years, all the way up till now. You have been involved for the last several years, but I don't think any of us has ever been accused of trying to have an insurrection or have called on violence, even if some violence happened days away from us, where you directly could even try to conjure this up—let alone on members of Congress. So, I mean, how do they think this is going to work? No one called for anyone to stop the certification of an election, which is a coup d'etat by definition.
CUNNINGHAM: That's right. What we have called for, and what we have consistently been calling for, is the ability to live, breathe, rest, raise our children, raise our families, and make a living in peace. Like all Americans, like all people deserve to be able to do. That's very different from complaining because the election doesn't go your way, and then attempting, like you said, a coup on the United States Capitol. 93% of those protests from over the summer were without incident, and we know much of the 7% was actually created by many of the same kinds of white supremacists that marched on the Capitol on January the 6th. So instead of worrying about a peaceful nonviolent movement that will continue to push for our rights, Congress should be worried about passing a bill for $2,000 monthly survival checks for the American people. They should be worried about ending a pandemic that has killed nearly half a million people in a year, starting today. We should make sure that they're holding insurrectionists accountable, and that they are actually setting a precedent so that this cannot happen again. That requires continuing to impeach and convict Donald J. Trump, and it also requires expelling the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the voice of the American people. That is what congress needs to concern itself with, and that's what the American people will expect of them.
SHARPTON: All right. Activist extraordinaire Brittany Packnett Cunningham, and our friend Elise Jordan, thank you both for being with us.
