Thursday's Morning Joe featured a kumbaya moment between host Joe Scarborough and Al Sharpton. After professing his friendship with the instigator of the Crown Heights pogrom, Scarborough defended Sharpton against charges that he inserts himself into racially-charged situations.
In the middle of discussing the grand jury decision in the death of Eric Garner, Scarborough interrupted Sharpton:
Scarborough: Can I stop for just one second? I'm glad you said that. Because I catch a lot of crap from conservatives for being your friend. And for saying you're my friend. And even when we disagree like we have this past week we always talk respectfully to each other. I think I’m going to the camera and say this: Al Sharpton doesn't go out looking for these people like -- it's not like a trial lawyer, the families call him and ask him to come. It happened in Ferguson, it happened in Staten Island, and I just wanted to say that because --
Sharpton: People call when you have organizations like this. Why wouldn't they?
Scarborough: I hear the same story over and over again from my conservative friends.
Sharpton: They think I have a walkie-talkie, reading at night, I'm going to find something.
Scarborough: Right, you got a police scanner, like you're like a trial lawyer that's like advertising; it's not the case. I know this weekend --
Sharpton: We get nothing from this.
Scarborough: You get a call from families themselves and there's a lot of other stuff you do that you don't talk about that this, this happens because families pick up the phone and they call you because they need help.
Sharpton: And let me say this, you catch flak from being my friend and vice versa and we disagree and you denounced me on the floor of Congress, we've talked about it and laughed--
Scarborough: You remember that. Willie, that was a year or two ago.
Sharpton: America can see that you and I can say, "I vehemently disagree on this but I’ll come together on this." That's what makes the country work.
Scarborough didn't explain which family called Sharpton to Harlem and asked him to incite the fire bombing of Freddy's Fashion Mart where seven people Angelina Marrero, Cynthia Martinez, Luz Ramos, Mayra Rentas, Olga Garcia, Garnette Ramautar, Kareem Brunner died. He didn't mention which family asked him to defend Jew-hating professor Leonard Jeffries by saying, "“If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house." Scarborough didn't mention which family told Sharpton to go to Duke and declare these ”rich white boys” on the Lacrosse team had attacked a ”black girl,” and warn if arrests were not made immediately, there would be no peace (the woman's charges were discredited). Does Joe Scarborough believe that a family told his buddy Al to slander all Republicans on his radio show? He told his radio audience that Republicans view black people as subhumans, much as Adolf Hitler saw Jews.
It doesn't matter who invites Sharpton into a situation; it only matters what he does when he gets there. Once he thrusts himself into a situation, Sharpton often incites hatred.
