It looks like Rev. Al Sharpton needs to take a quick break from his politicking so he can brush up on his American history. During a recent interview, the so-called civil rights leader made some rather odd – and inaccurate – comments while trying to score cheap political points against former President Donald Trump.
While discussing the former president’s most recent Justice Department indictment related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Sharpton criticized Trump for trying to stay in power after the 2020 election by inciting an insurrection. That’s when it got weird.
“One day, our children’s children will read American history, and can you imagine our reading that James Madison or Thomas Jefferson tried to overthrow the government so they could stay in power? That’s what we’re looking at,” Sharpton said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We’re looking at American history, and how it will play out is going to be very important.”
“Can you imagine if James Madison or Thomas Jefferson tried to overthrow the government?”
I think someone needs to pick up a history book. pic.twitter.com/uj7U6Fg7zi
— Jeff Charles, King of the Nonwhites🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) August 3, 2023
For starters, what is funny about this criticism is that the Justice Department’s indictment has little to do with the riot. Democrats and their close friends and allies in the activist media have been pretending that Trump called the rioters to action on Jan. 6, yet he was never convicted of this particular crime during the second politically-motivated impeachment attempt against him.
But the real perplexing issue here is Sharpton’s comments about Madison and Jefferson.
Both of these men were very much involved in overthrowing the British government and kicking them out of America. These individuals were instrumental in fomenting the rebellion against the Crown and leading the Virginia militia in the Battle of Yorktown.
Even further, Jefferson was the lead author of the Declaration of Independence which was, among other things, a fancy way of telling the British government “your services are no longer needed.” In fact, in the document, Jefferson asserted:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
If this wasn’t declaring the intent of the revolutionaries, I don’t know what does. Even with America’s faulty educational system, most schoolchildren at least know that folks like Madison and Jefferson led the violent revolt against the Crown. In fact, using Sharpton’s logic (or lack thereof), these people were far worse than those who participated in the riot.
But these people were not trying to overthrow the government. Anyone who knows anything about militias would laugh at the assertion that people running around with sticks and no firearms were somehow trying to take over the country. Regardless of what one thinks of their actions, pretending these were revolutionaries on par with Madison and Jefferson is about as silly as it gets.
What is even crazier about this story is that nobody on the show even bothered to correct Sharpton or get him to clarify what he meant. They just went along with it, as if he hadn’t uttered the most foolish diatribe possible in that moment. Perhaps they think their audience is not knowledgeable enough to understand why the reverend’s remarks were so ridiculous. They might just be right.
