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OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:32 PM – Thursday, December 5, 2024
The National Black Church Initiative has called on MSNBC to look into payments made by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to a group that is run by controversial network host Al Sharpton.
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Sharpton is a social justice activist, Baptist minister, radio talk show host, and media personality. He is also the founder of the National Action Network civil rights organization.
Sharpton has been criticized by his detractors throughout the years for his purported “anti-Semitic” comments and his “racist remarks against White people.”
“White folks was in the caves while we [Black people] was building empires. … We built pyramids before Donald Trump ever knew what architecture was. … We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it,” Sharpton said previously. “So [if] some cracker come and tell you ‘Well, my mother and father blood go back to the Mayflower,’ you better hold your pocket. That ain’t nothing to be proud of. That means their forefathers was crooks.”
In the late 1980s, Sharpton first made headlines after he claimed that a White gang, which he said included Dutchess County assistant district attorney Steven Pagones, had kidnapped and sexually assaulted a Black teenage girl in the 1987 Tawana Brawley case. Sharpton publicly blamed Pagones and accused law enforcement of a “racist cover-up,” but he offered no proof. A grand jury later exonerated Pagones of all charges in 1988 after discovering that the incident had never even occurred. However, Pagones’s prosecutorial career was done, he and his family constantly received death threats, and the stress of it all prompted his marriage to fail. In 1998, Pagones defeated Sharpton in a defamation lawsuit, but Sharpton refused to pay the $65,000 in damages, claiming that he didn’t have the money, the Washington Examiner reported.
In 1991, Sharpton also incited violence after a Jewish driver accidentally ran over a 7-year-old Black boy named Gavin Cato, leading to protests and riots in the streets, which Sharpton cheered on. The riots included chants of “No Justice, No Peace!” and “Kill the Jews!”
Efraim Lipkind, a former Hasidic resident of Crown Heights during that time, testified that Sharpton began agitating the crowd, inciting even more violence.
“Then we had a famous man, Al Sharpton, who came down, and he said Tuesday night, kill the Jews, two times. I heard him, and he started to lead a charge across the street to Utica.”
At the time, Sharpton remarked on the incident, saying: “The world will tell us he was killed by accident… It’s an accident to allow an apartheid ambulance service in the middle of Crown Heights. … Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights.”
Fast forward to now, 2024.
In a Facebook post, “NBCI,” which labels itself as a coalition of Black churches, further questioned whether the Kamala Harris campaign truly paid Sharpton in order for the Democrat nominee to receive easy, “softball” questions in her October MSNBC interview with Sharpton.
“Rev. Sharpton does not have a degree in journalism, and it undermines the career of Black men and women who have more experience and journalism integrity,” their post reads. “The National Black Church Initiative demands that MSNBC launch an investigation into the donation or payment by the Harris campaign.”
According to Federal Election Commission records, on September 5th, “Harris for President” first sent $250,000 to Sharpton’s group, National Action Network. Additionally, on October 1st, the campaign sent another identical donation, totaling to $500,000 in funds sent to his organization.
Then, on October 20th, Sharpton conducted the interview in question with the current vice president.
“This payment calls into question Rev. Sharpton, a host on MSNBC journalism ethics,” NBCI wrote. “Do you have to pay Al Sharpton through a donation to his organization to get on his show or get a favorable interview?”
Additionally, NBCI asked exactly why the Harris campaign donated the $500,000 to the National Action Network, and whether Sharpton received any of the money. According to the coalition, one of its leaders seems to be selling “our voting” to “Harris for President,” which they expressed greatly worries them.
“Rev. Sharpton is loved and admired by many in our coalition, but that does take away from the fact he is facing significant moral and journalism ethics regarding this payment or donation to the National Action Network,” NBCI President Anthony Evans stated. “We will continue to pray for him.”
MSNBC later claimed to the outlet the Washington Free Beacon, which revealed the payments last month, that the network was unaware of them. NBCI still noted that “there are a lot of questions to be answered.”
“For many ministers, this type of action puts a moral stain on the integrity of the Black Church. The Rev. Al Sharpton needs to fully disclose the nature of the $500,000, why it was given and received, and for what purpose,” the post reads. “Where are the receipts? And did Rev. Sharpton receive any funds, and if so, what and for what purpose?”
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