Vice President Kamala Harris praised Rev. Al Sharpton—an anti-Semite who has said that "diamond merchant" Jews have the "blood of innocent babies" on their hands—in a birthday shoutout Thursday morning.
"Happy 70th Birthday, Rev! … I celebrate the day you were born," Harris said in a video aired on MSNBC. "You are a voice of truth, a voice of conscience, a voice of practicality around what we must address and what we can do, and I thank you so much for your friendship."
Sharpton, a prominent Democratic ally, provoked the 1991 Crown Heights riots—one of the worst eruptions of anti-Semitic violence in American history that inspired chants such as "Let's get the Jew!" and "Hitler didn't finish the job!"
Violence broke out in Crown Heights after a Jewish driver accidentally killed a black child. Sharpton called for escalations.
"The world will tell us he was killed by accident," Sharpton said at the time. "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." Sharpton said Jews have the "blood of innocent babies" on their hands.
Sharpton also defended an anti-Semitic college professor who blamed "rich Jews" for the slave trade.
Over the years, Sharpton’s image has recovered in the eyes of the Democratic elite, earning him a speaking slot at this year’s Democratic National Convention in August.
"We are going to join with whites, and browns, and Asians, and we're gonna do a job on those that have done a job on us," he said during his speech. He concluded the primetime address shouting, "Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy!"—a reference to Harris's central campaign message.
Harris, in April, celebrated Sharpton as a "voice of truth."
"No matter where you are, you are always a voice of truth speaking about the importance of justice for all people. You are part of the conscience of our country," Harris said. Sharpton was one of the first people Harris called the day President Joe Biden withdrew his reelection campaign.