On today's Morning Joe, discussing Juneteenth, which commemorates the freeing of Texas slaves who didn't learn of the Emancipation Proclamation until two-and-a-half years after Lincoln issued it, Al Sharpton proclaimed:
"The reason I think [Juneteenth] is so important today is that the issues in this election for people like me is around states' rights, where you have states, I was in Florida last night, trying to ban books, trying to stop women's right to choose. It's an issue that's still alive, states' rights against the Union, the federal government protecting women, protecting blacks, and protecting history studies and other things. "And, the ability to communicate. When you get your news from the wrong source, you can be freed and don't even know it."
Yes, pity those poor, benighted, conservative souls, who don't get their news from objective sources—like Morning Joe! They're like slaves living in ignorance! If only they would come to the light of MSNBC, and learn that they are free—free, I tell you!
Sharpton spoke of "states' rights" as if we were back in the Jim Crow South. In fact, as Washington Post editor Charles Lane wrote in 2017, after the election of Donald Trump, "Liberals are learning to love states’ rights." Liberal states and municipalities lean on states' rights with their "sanctuary" areas that refuse to uphold federal laws, that try to adopt gun control in defiance of Supreme Court rulings, etc.
As for the "wrong source" of news: looking at you FNC! Perhaps in a second Biden term, Al could be made News Source Commissar, with the authority to ban "wrong sources." Al Sharpton's Juneteenth analogy was stretched further than his old tracksuit from back in the day, as you can see.
A few minutes later, as they discussed Trump's reported insults toward Milwaukee before the Republican convention there, Sharpton said "I think that we're getting ahead of ourselves. He has a sentencing four days before the convention, and who knows, the judge may have other accommodations prepared for him. I don't know. It's maybe unlikely, but I wouldn't rule it out!"
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
6/19/24
6:02 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: Good morning, and welcome to Morning Joe. It's a very -- it's going to be very hot. Wednesday, June 19th, Juneteenth!
With us, let's bring in the host of Way Too Early, White House bureau chief for Politico, Jonathan Lemire, former director of communications for President Obama, Jen Palmieri, president of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's Politics Nation, Reverend Al Sharpton, and professor at Princeton University, Eddie Glaude Jr.
So good to have you all with us. We're going to get to just the record-setting heat first.
But Rev, let's talk about today and Juneteenth, and why it's so important.
AL SHARPTON: It's very important. Juneteenth is really a celebration, but also a reminder that after Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, those in Texas were not even aware they had been freed until June 19, 1865. For two-and-a-half years, slaves continued to work as slaves in Texas until the Union army came in and made it clear they were free, and enforced it.
And the reason I think it's is so important, Joe, today is the issues in this election for people like me is around states' rights. Where you have states—I was in Florida last night—trying to ban books, trying to stop women's right to choose. It's an issue that's still alive, states' rights against the Union, the federal government protecting women, protecting blacks, and protecting history studies and other things.
And, the ability to communicate. When you you get your news from the wrong source, you can be freed and don't even know it.
