Liberals have spent the last five years fulminating about how former President Donald Trump reserved the bulk of his national TV interviews for Fox News. They fiercely protested the protective bubble Trump received from Sean Hannity or Jeanine Pirro.
So what did they say when Vice President Kamala Harris granted her first national interview as the veep to Rev. Al Sharpton for his weekend MSNBC program? Hannity and Pirro aren’t known for racial hoaxes or virulent anti-Semitism.
No one would really consider Sharpton a journalist. He’s still running around lobbying with his group, the National Action Network. Last year, he touted how he would “get in the door and advocate” for Harris and Joe Biden if they were elected.
So, going all soft on Kamala now, making her look good, might help him with his lobbying later. He didn’t ask Harris a single hard question. He didn’t ask about Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He didn’t ask about the new administration putting child immigrants in a Trump-era shelter. It was 15 minutes inside a protective bubble. Let’s review his question list.
1. “Let me ask you: What does Black History Month mean to you?” he said. Harris replied, “It means everything to me.” This softball was used in advertisements to promote the interview.
2. The self-involved Sharpton noted that he took Harris to his favorite soul-food restaurant, Sylvia’s, when she was running for president. “You asked me a lot of questions about Shirley Chisholm, who I worked with when I was a kid,” he said. “You asked me a lot about Reverend Jesse Jackson that helped mentor me in activism. So I know you had a keen sense of history in even my own journey. Who are the people that influence Kamala Harris to be the vice president of the United States? … Who was important to Kamala Harris as a black historic figure?”
3. Then, the reverend preached: “You’re not only the first woman vice president, first black woman, first South Asian, South Pacific woman. You are also the first HBCU graduate, from Howard University. And you’re the first AKA member. … How much of Howard University … shaped you?”
4. On the coronavirus, Sharpton lectured: “(I)n the black community, we’ve had the problem of hesitancy and questioning, and, given a bad history, there is no reason why we wouldn’t. But you’ve been that champion of trying to convince us, including people like me that were reluctant, and you’re doing something specific. Tell us about Thursday.” She touted an event at a Washington, D.C., pharmacy that was held two days before the interview aired.
Sharpton credited Harris with convincing him to get a vaccine, which he did. But there was no question on how Harris and Biden claimed they had to start on vaccine distribution “from scratch,” which is flat-out false. Or a question about Harris’ statement last year she wouldn’t trust any vaccine released by Trump before the election.
5. He closed out by asking Harris how she’d like to be considered in half a century. “What do you hope they will say?” he asked. “You’ll probably still be around in some smart pantsuit and some Converse sneakers, but I’ll be gone. What do you hope they will say about Kamala Harris, the first black woman vice president of the United States, 50 years from now?” Fifty years from now? When she’s 106?
These weren’t so much questions as they were opportunities for Harris to dwell on her biography, influences and inspirations and celebrate Black History Month. That’s all very uplifting if you’re a Liberal Person of Color. But liberals shouldn’t try to lecture conservatives about journalistic skepticism and independence.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
Hey Al Sharpton, you didn’t ask Kamala what flavor ice cream she eats. Oh, what a tragedy, as I surely wanted to know what flavor ice cream Kamala eats. Boy, what great journalism, by you communists, right Al Sharpton? Softball questions? A softball is harder than mashed potatoes. I honestly think the questions you asked Kamala, are mashed potatoes (very soft). A softball question would be too hard for Kamala to answer.
al brawley sharpton is nothing but a hate mongering, dung flinging, racist tax evader, I can hardly imagine anyone listening to him for any reason.
They miss-spelled the word Hoary. You can’t have a heart to heart when you have no heart, just an appetite.
Yup, left off the ‘w’ and there is no ‘a’.
You also forgot complicit in murder on two occasions when he incited riots that resulted in murders.
Don’t you mean “encouraged mostly peaceful protesting”??
Al Sharpton is a mentor of the hateful racist socialist Democrat Party.
Look at how many times tinkerbell PinocchiObama invited Al Sharpton
to the White House during the tinkerbell PinocchiObama’s reign.
Camel hair and camel face. Interchangeable monikers for this pair of criminals.
WHY the hell is he not in jail!!!
“Al Sharpton’s Hoary Heart-To-Heart With Kamala”
A racist match made in Hell!
Al must have found another way to make a buck. He does, and say, anything that will benefit him. He’s as phony as that three dollar bill Obama.
Anyone remember if he ever visited the white house, while TRUMP Was there?? OR bush?
I had a thought about misspelling in the title but won’t post it.
From a Judeo-Christian point of view, Al Sharpton and Kamala Harris reject the freedom code which is ingrained in the U.S. Constitution and based on God’s order for human government, i.e. a decentralized system in which the people’s representatives are subject to the same laws as the people.
Winston Churchill once said, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of misery.”
Ayn Rand once said, “Instead of prosperity, socialism has brought economic paralysis and/or collapse to every country that tried it. The degree of socialization has been the degree of disaster. The consequences have varied accordingly.”
The Huge question America should be asking is, Who is the Most Racist individual that created THIS Whole Racial Problem? Why none other than Hussein Obummer. The most successful Muslim sleeper cell in our Country. The same guy that removed all his jewelry during Ramadan while Bowing deeply to Saudi Royalty. The same guy that sent pallets of cash to a Country that chants “Death To America”. Remember his response to Anyone disagreeing with him?? That person was labeled a Racist. He was the first to legitimize the Marxist Communist Black Lives Matter and not condemning the act of kneeling during The National Anthem.
Notice all questions are race-based! How about that famous man who said “Judge by their character; not the color of their skin?” Neither tax-cheat Sharpton (has he paid the $3 million yet) or Commieala has a good character!
OF course.. IMO Blacks like those two, ONLY EVER SEE things as racist… CAUSE THEY ARE RACISTS to the core.
Are they not able to keep her history constant? Last I heard her ancestry was Africa & India, last I checked India was not South Asia or South Pacific… Then again facts and consistency don’t usually mean squat to these people.
Al Sharpton , Kamala Harris are racists like Obama who went to racist Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years, and was mentored by him. Not a word of this is mentioned to the public by the rotten to the core Democrat Party Policy and Legislation loving Media Moguls. They hate people who want to clean up our bureaucratic Democrat Party legislated deep swamp. A colored person is writing this and some of my good friends are white , and they are not racists, or teach their children that evil is good. I love their children because they are raised properly, even though Dem legislation , Media Moguls , racist clergy, politicians ,supreme court injustices etc. are corrupting everyone beginning with kindergarteners, by rotten news ,entertainment and school curriculum. We all need to follow Martin Luther King’s word’s , don’t judge anyone by the color of their skin , but the content of their character.
They were discussing how to put the payment for his $4.5 million in state and federal tax liens into the “COVID relief’ bill!
IT wouldn’t surprise me one bit, to see them TRY to do that.
Hey crooked Al, how about paying the $5,000,000 you owe the IRS??
Who cares about any interview shown on MSNBC? Only 5 people in the entire world saw it and they fell asleep during the show.
You can see the phoniness dripping off this woman. Nothing you see is the real Her or Him .
Make no mistake about it, Al Sharpton is a “Reverend” in name only!
His views and beliefs do not line up with sound Biblical teaching, so regardless of what you think of him politically, he is very unqualified to teach / preach anything from the Scriptures. Since I don’t trust him to teach the Scriptures without significant error, I would also expect his political views to be very distorted & filled with error.