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It wasnt about the food.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg barely touched their lunches Monday as they powwowed at historic Sylvias restaurant in Harlem.

The South Bend, Ind., mayor ordered collard greens, fried chicken and sipped on iced tea while Sharpton nibbled at dry toast.

We had a very candid lunch. I asked him about the police issue in South Bend. I asked him about the removal of certain housing in South Bend, Sharpton told reporters. He answered very frankly. He didnt duck any of the issues.

Buttigieg offered a similar take.

I valued the conversation, he said.

The small-town mayor was the second Democratic presidential candidate to pay homage to Sharpton at Sylvias California Sen. Kamala Harris met him at the same restaurant in February.

But Buttigieg took the subway to Harlem.

Most of the top Democratic contenders including Buttigieg spoke at the annual conference of Sharptons National Action Network in March.

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Pete Buttigieg, Al Sharpton talk politics during lunch in ...

The Rev. Al Sharpton has been praised as a civil rights icon by prominent figures in politics, and "60 Minutes" reported that he has become President Barack Obama's "go-to black leader."

Sharpton has been frequently in the media for leading protests against grand jury decisions exonerating white policemen in the deaths of unarmed African-Americans in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York.

But many in the mainstream media have sought to downplay the negatives surrounding the firebrand minister, who has been accused of being a rabble-rouser out for personal gain, including:

1. When Sharpton sought involvement in the funeral of Akai Gurley, an African-American shot dead in November by a rookie police officer in the darkened stairwell of a housing project in Brooklyn, New York, Gurley's family told him to stay away.

Sharpton held a news conference condemning the cop and promised to deliver a eulogy at the wake. But Gurley's aunt, who was speaking for his mother, told TMZ: "Al Sharpton came in, put his name on the situation, but has not even made one single call to the parents of Akai," adding that all Sharpton sees "is money and political gain and he is turning the tragedy into a circus."

2. Sharpton has more than $4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his businesses. His National Action Network has repeatedly failed to pay travel agencies, hotels, and landlords, records show.

3. Sharpton has allegedly sought to keep his nonprofit afloat with money that was supposed to go to payroll taxes, although he contends that the payroll tax shortfall was not intentional.

4. The reverend accused an upstate New York prosecutor, Steven Pagones, of being part of a group of white men who raped teenager Tawana Brawley in 1987. A grand jury found "overwhelming evidence" that the rape allegation had been fabricated. Pagones sued Sharpton for defamation and won a judgment of $65,000. Sharpton reportedly paid the judgment with money raised by his supporters.

5. Sharpton has frequently sparked controversy with his strident language. During a rally in Brooklyn, he called white people "crackers."

6. After a car in a Hasidic rabbi's motorcade killed a 7-year-old black boy in Brooklyn in 1991, Sharpton referred to the Hasidic Jews as "diamond merchants" and said "if the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house." Shortly afterward, an innocent Hasidic Jewish student visiting the area from Australia was set upon by a mob and stabbed to death.

7. In 1995, an African-American Pentecostal church in Harlem, New York, asked a Jewish tenant of one of its properties, Freddie's Fashion Mart, to evict a black-run record store that was subletting part of the property. Sharpton showed up outside Freddie's vowing to a crowd: "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business."

Two weeks before Christmas that year, Freddie's was attacked by a man in the crowd who shot several customers and then set fire to the building with a flammable liquid, killing seven employees. Sharpton subsequently apologized for his "white interloper" remark, but vehemently denied responsibility for the violence.

8. Speaking at a college in 1994, Sharpton referred to gay men as "homos."

9. When Mitt Romney, a Mormon, was running for president in 2007, Sharpton said: "As for the Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway."

10. In 1990, Sharpton was acquitted of felony charges that he stole $250,000 from his youth group.

11. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for failing to file a state income tax return.

12. State law bars nonprofits from making loans to officers, but Sharpton admitted that his National Action Network had once loaned him money to cover his daughters' tuition.

13. Sharpton was jailed for 90 days in 2001 on trespassing charges stemming from his protest against U.S. military target practice exercises in Puerto Rico.

14. Sharpton worked as a government informant. In 2002, HBO aired a 19-year-old FBI videotape of an undercover sting operation showing Sharpton with an FBI agent posing as a Latin American businessman and a reputed Columbo crime family captain.

Sharpton said in 1988 that he informed for the government in order to stem the flow of crack cocaine into black neighborhoods, although The Smoking Gun alleged that he was paid to be an informant.

15. In December 2005, Sharpton agreed to repay $100,000 in public funds he received for his 2004 presidential campaign, because he had exceeded federal limits on personal expenditures for his campaign.

16. In 2005, Sharpton appeared in three TV commercials for LoanMax, an automobile title loan firm that reportedly charged fees that were the equivalent of 300 percent APR loans.

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16 Facts About Al Sharpton the Media Won't Tell You ...

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Posted: Apr 07, 2019 12:01 AM

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com.

It should surprise no one that in the radicalized Democratic Party of 2019 disgraced Reverend Al Sharpton is a major power-broker. His influence has been on display this week as many of the major Democratic Party presidential candidates attended a convention sponsored by the National Action Network, a civil rights organization founded by Sharpton. The list of attendees included Senators Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as Congressman Julian Castro, former Congressman Beto ORourke, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Democrats view Sharpton as an African American leader with a huge following across the country. Instead of being regarded as a major figure in the party, Sharpton should have been shunned many years ago. In 1987, he advocated the cause of Tawana Brawley, a young girl who claimed she was raped by a group of white men. She also maintained that she was smeared with feces and had racial slurs written all over her body.

Sharpton turned her case into a national story claiming a racist attack and demanding compensation for Brawley and prosecution for the white men accused of the crime. Ultimately, a jury decided that it was a hoax and the men were innocent. Subsequently, Brawley, Sharpton and some of her other advisers were ordered to pay restitution to one of the men, former prosecutor Steve Pagones, who was falsely named in the attack.

This outrageous hoax should have forever banished Sharpton to the political sidelines. Instead, he has been conducting his racial shakedowns ever since and given a national media platform with a syndicated radio show and a MSNBC television show.

For so many of the top Democrats to show solidarity with Sharpton is a stinging indictment of the party today. At his convention, the presidential candidates pledged support for the extreme Democratic Party agenda, including such controversial proposals as paying reparations to African Americans as atonement for slavery.

It is unclear exactly how Democrats foresee reparations being paid. A bill by U.S. Representative Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX) calls for recommendations on payments along with an apology to African Americans. Several of the leading Democratic Party candidates, including Gillibrand, Harris, ORourke and Booker have endorsed the bill.

It is incredibly sad that Democrats are fixated on the past instead of trying to create a better future for Americans of all races. Obviously, they want to aggravate racial divisions in a bid to capture a higher percentage of minority voters in the next election.

Before the next election, lets hope African American voters will examine whether Democrat elected officials in office all over the country, regardless of their fiery race-baiting rhetoric, are actually enacting policies that are creating better living conditions in the major urban areas of the country. Today, almost all of the cities with the highest rates of crime and poverty, such as St. Louis, Baltimore, New Orleans and Chicago, are controlled by Democrats, who exacerbate these problems with their disastrous polices. Instead of accepting responsibility for such catastrophic results, Democrats usually blame Republicans and institutionalized racism as the true culprits.

This current push for reparations is another example of what Democrats always do to generate support at election time. Rather than offer strategies to improve the plight of African Americans such as initiatives that will produce good paying jobs and more opportunity for business growth, Democrats advocate policies like reparations that will create more racial division and economic misfortune for millions of Americans.

Such an idea is ludicrous for many reasons. Americans living today should not be financially penalized for morally reprehensible actions of previous generations. Poor and working-class white Americans should not be forced to pay reparations in a scheme to improve the financial situation of African Americans. Along with the racial discrimination involved in the proposal, it is also patently unfair. No white American living today has ever owned a slave and no African American living today has been a slave, at least not in this country.

What is ironic is that slavery currently does exist in many countries around the world and Democrats seem to have little to no interest in freeing those imprisoned people from oppression. Their only interest is in promoting positions that will enhance their political power, not in actually creating better conditions for people in this country or anywhere around the world.

By advocating destructive policies like reparations and paying homage to a race hustler and scam artist like Reverend Al Sharpton, these leading Democrats are giving all Americans a clear indication of the sickness that is afflicting their party.It is a powerful reminder that voters should heed as they start to focus on the upcoming 2020 elections.

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Democrats Kiss The Ring Of Al Sharpton - townhall.com

The Rev. Al Sharpton portrayed Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a hypocrite Saturday for criticizing Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxxs handling of the Jussie Smollett case when the mayor long was silent on the police murder of Laquan McDonald.

For days, Emanuel has been sharply criticizing the decision by Foxxs office to allow Smollett to walk in the case, after Chicago police collected evidence that showed the Empire actor allegedly staged a racist and homophobic attack on himself. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Sharpton described Emanuels behavior as Hypocrisy 101.

The reason this is of national significance to me, there is a marked difference between how they reacted to this and how they reacted to the Laquan McDonald case. They were not outraged when the video was withheld until after the mayors election, Sharpton said of Emanuel, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and other top police officials. There was a fox in the henhouse then, but the fox wasnt Kim then. The name of that fox was whoever was in the mayors race.

Emanuel spokesman Matt McGrath said, This isnt worthy of a response.

Sharpton made the remarks during a Saturday visit to Chicago to give a keynote speech at the Rev. Jesse Jacksons Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. The purpose of Sharptons visit was to preach black unity in the mayors race between former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, one of whom on Tuesday will be elected Chicagos first African-American female mayor.

But during a rousing 20-minute sermon before an energetic crowd at PUSHs South Side headquarters, Sharpton also offered a full-throated defense of Foxx, a former top aide to Preckwinkle who has served as the countys top prosecutor since 2016. In doing so, he recalled Emanuels handling of the 2014 shooting of McDonald.

For much of 2015, Emanuel fought the release of dashcam footage of Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times in a Southwest Side street as the black teen walked away from the officer as he held a small folding knife. When a county judge ordered Emanuel to release the video, then-States Attorney Anita Alvarez charged Van Dyke with murder as the graphic footage was made public. That, coupled with the Emanuel administration paying McDonalds family a $5 million settlement before a lawsuit had even been filed, led to accusations of a City Hall cover-up, weeks of street protests and calls for the mayors resignation.

Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder in connection with McDonalds death and in January was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison. Garry McCarthy was police superintendent at the time of the McDonald shooting, while Johnson held a leadership role in the departments brass and became the citys top cop after McCarthys firing.

I found it strange that the mayor who didnt hold a national press conference when the Laquan McDonalds tape wasnt released, I find it strange that the police chief that didnt say a word, when they let an election go by and couldnt find the tape, but all of the sudden, you have selective outrage and you start attacking Ms. Foxx, Sharpton preached as a crowd of a couple of hundred people rose to its feet and cheered. This is of national concern. We are not going to sit by and allow her to be questioned when you didnt question Van Dyke, you didnt question the tape, you didnt question anything else.

Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all charges against Smollett in exchange for community service and his forfeiture of the $10,000 hed posted as bond. The decision sparked vehement criticism from Johnson and Emanuel, who called it a whitewash of justice and appeared frequently on national television to discuss the case.

President Donald Trump also weighed in, tweeting Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice would be looking into the case.

Maybe the only time Ive ever agreed with the mayor of Chicago, Trump said at a political rally in Michigan later that night. Thats a terrible situation. Thats an embarrassment not only to Chicago, that is an embarrassment to our country what took place there.

Foxx had previously said she recused herself in the case after revealing she had contact with Smollett's representatives early on in the investigation. This week, her office said Foxx did not formally recuse herself in a legal sense."

Smollett had been facing felony charges for allegedly staging the attack on himself in downtown Chicago in order to further his career. Smollett, who is African-American and openly gay, said he was walking from a Subway sandwich shop to his apartment in the 300 block of East North Water Street about 2 a.m. Jan. 29 when two men walked up, yelled racial and homophobic slurs, hit him and wrapped a noose around his neck.

Smollett said they also yelled, This is MAGA country, in a reference to Trumps campaign slogan of Make America Great Again.

Police initially treated the incident as a hate crime, but their focus turned to Smollett after two brothers who were alleged to have been his assailants told police that Smollett had paid them $3,500 to stage the attack, with a promise of an additional $500 later.

After the charges were dropped, Smollett and his legal team maintained he had been wrongfully accused all along and said the city of Chicago owed him an apology. Nevertheless, the city has sent Smollett a letter seeking to recover $130,000 or face further legal action.

On Friday, Foxx submitted an op-ed to the Chicago Tribune in which she said that some of the evidence and testimony against the Empire star would have made securing a conviction against Smollett uncertain. Foxx noted that Smollett, however, had not been exonerated or found innocent

For a variety of reasons, including public statements made about the evidence in this case, my office believed the likelihood of securing a conviction was not certain, Foxx wrote without elaborating.

Foxx also said she welcomed an independent investigation into her offices handling of the case.

As for Sharpton, he told the crowd Saturday that he wasnt going to weigh in on whether Smollett was guilty.

I dont know where that falls in judicial lines, Sharpton said, when asked whether Smollett at a minimum should have been forced to apologize and express guilt before Foxxs office dropped the charges. What she did or didnt do, coulda, woulda, shoulda done does not, in any way to me, justify the hypocrisy shown by city officials that, in my opinion, helped to influence the last election.

Sharpton also said he was against anybody misusing hate crimes, but vowed a nationwide push to defend Foxx from criticism.

I think they need to understand there will be a national reaction to them trying to profile Kim Foxx, Sharpton said. This hasnt nothing to do with Jussie Smollett, this has something to do with a black woman having the power that every prosecutor has.

bruthhart@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @BillRuthhart

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A number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are set to speak at Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network conventionas they compete to reach black voters, a critical demographic in the upcoming primary elections. Sharpton's convention has garnered prominent guests in the past, such as President Barack Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Presidential candidates speaking at the National Action Network convention on Wednesday include former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, businessman Andrew Yang and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julin Castro.

Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the gubernatorial race in Georgia last year and is currently mulling a presidential bid, is also speaking Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, Rep. John Delaney and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg are speaking at the convention.

Friday will see the greatest concentration of 2020 candidates speaking at the event: Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker will be making remarks. Potential presidential contender Rep. Eric Swalwell will also be speaking on Friday.

Democrats have been working assiduously to court black voters, as winning black support is critical to success in primaries in southern states with large black populations. Sens. Booker, Harris and Sanders in particular have madeSouth Carolina, the second primary state, a key component of their campaign strategies.

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