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2020 Dems Praise, Defend Al Sharpton After Attack From Donald Trump

Harris tweeted that Sharpton 'has spent his life fighting for what's right'

Rev. Al Sharpton (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
July 29, 2019

A number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates praised and defended the Rev. Al Sharpton in response to an attack from President Donald Trump.

In response to Sharpton making a trip to Baltimore after Trump penned a series of derogatory tweets about the city, the president shot back Monday morning that Sharpton was "a con man, a troublemaker, always looking for a score" who "hates Whites & Cops!"

California senator Kamala Harris first responded with a tweet that Sharpton "has spent his life fighting for what's right and working to improve our nation" and has "done so much for our country."

Others following Harris's lead included Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio.

Warren and Harris were among the many 2020 contenders who have courted Sharpton for his endorsement, including Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Beto O'Rourke. Sharpton, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, had a much-publicized lunch with Harris in February.

Now an MSNBC host, Sharpton has a controversial history of anti-Semitic and racist comments. Among other instances, he has referred to Jews as "white interlopers,"called whites "crackers," Greek philosophers "homos," and said "White folks was in the caves while we was building empires." Most famously, days before the Crown Heights riots Sharpton said, "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."