Reverend Al Sharpton denounced former President Trump’s latest race-related comments, urging voters to “look at his record” on past issues involving Black Americans before leaning on his rhetoric.
Sharpton joined MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Friday, where she asked him about Trump’s recent comments highlighted by Semafor where he stated that he has “so many black friends”, he could not be considered racist.
“I have so many black friends that if I were racist, they wouldn’t be friends, they would know better than anyone, and fast,” Trump said in the interview, according to the outlet. two minutes if they thought I was racist – and I’m not racist!”
Wallace asked Sharpton how the media should cover the former president’s controversial statements.
“I think we’ve officially covered that. I don’t think we should [take the] bait… the bait of having to prove that Donald Trump is racist,” Sharpton responded.
He added that he knows Trump and believes he is racist, but “that’s not what we have to prove.”
“Just look at his record. He was always the target of racial baiting”, argued the reverend.
Sharpton then listed Trump’s harsh comments about the Central Park Five, the men wrongfully convicted of a brutal sexual assault in 1989. He specifically noted his rhetoric following the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, where he said there were “very fine people ” on both sides of the conflict.
He also raised the same case after the former president was convicted in the silent Manhattan trial late last month.
In another example, Sharpton noted that Trump was president during the 2020 George Floyd protests, where he released protesters outside the White House for a photo opportunity. He continued, arguing that the presumptive Republican nominee, a businessman and former TV show host, began his political career by saying that former President Obama was not a true American and questioned his birthplace.
“Birterism. Did he even question Joe Biden’s birthplace?” Sharpton asked. “I mean, everything about race, he’s always race-baiting black people.”
“So all you have to do is look at his record and I said to any of those who support him, show me where he was on the right side of any racial issue,” he added.
Sharpton went on to say that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
“I believe he’s a racist,” he said, later adding, “I don’t believe everyone who votes for him is a racist, but I believe every racist votes for Donald Trump.”
Sharpton’s comments come as Trump maintains a narrow lead over Biden, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ polling aggregation — even after he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the case of secret money.
It’s not the first time Trump has come under scrutiny over his comments about Black Americans. In February, when speaking about his accusations, he tried to gain sympathy from the crowd by claiming that black voters like him had also been discriminated against.
He also compared his personal legal battles to those that black men face in the country’s criminal justice system and said that “the black population” loved seeing his picture in the election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia.
Black and Democratic leaders criticized the former president for his comments.
In recent months, Trump has made a concerted effort to win over black men during his campaign, especially as Biden appears to be losing traction with black voters. Senator Tim Scott (RS.C.), who is on the list as a potential vice-presidential candidate for 2024, has been campaigning for the former president to gain the support of black people.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
