MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace discussed this weekend’s nearly tragic events at a synagogue in Texas with . . . Al Sharpton on Monday night.
At one point, Wallace danced and dithered around the details of Saturday’s hostage situation by asking what all sorts of people should do about the debilitating fear anyone may have about what is going on in the world. Sharpton replied:
I think the first thing we have to do is understand that fear is not going to be a refuge from danger. The only way we’re going to stop this is we’re going to have to come together and fight it together. So when you see what we saw this weekend with the synagogue, unlikely people like me have to denounce it, which we did. I reached out to Jonathan [Greenblatt].
The full clip — including Sharpton’s pat on his own back — is affixed below. Sharpton’s certainly right about one thing: He is an unlikely figure to denounce Saturday’s events.
In 1991, Sharpton reacted to the death of Gavin Cato, a young Guyanese immigrant, hit and killed by a Hasidic driver, by leading a march featuring antisemitic banners and speaking at Cato’s funeral. Among his remarks:
Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights. The issue is not anti-Semitism; the issue is apartheid. . . . All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise, no meetings, no kaffeeklatsch, no skinnin’ and grinnin’.
One hundred and ninety were injured and two died in the riots that Sharpton helped inspire.
Shortly before Cato’s death, he spoke at a rally where he declared: “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”
Later, he fanned the flames at Freddy’s Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned store that was later attacked by a man convinced that Sharpton-led protests outside of it were just. In truth, owner Fred Harari had been asked to evict a black tenant by Harari’s black landlord.
So was his face-saving call to the president of the Anti-Defamation League unlikely? Sure, you could say that.
"You must lose the fear of being criticized by your own for saying that you can't fight racism against Blacks without fighting anti-Semitism, xenophobia, homophobia. We've got to become fearless… We must stand up to extremes on all sides" – @TheRevAl w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/SDK6C9hiHJ
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) January 17, 2022