MSNBC host Reverend Al Sharpton argued Thursday that chaos seen on college campuses by left-wing agitators is hurting Democrats politically.
"How do the Democrats, how do all of us on that side say Jan. 6 was wrong, if you can have the same pictures going on on college campuses? You lose the moral high ground," Sharpton said on "Morning Joe" as he and the program's co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough watched footage from the clashes between pro-Palestinian, anti-Semitic protesters and police at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Brzezinski interjected, "Good Lord, don’t make a parallel with Jan. 6!”
Sharpton reaffirmed, "You lose the moral high ground.”
“That has happened though,” Scarborough said.
🚨The Marxists are destroying themselves:
Race-baiting Al Sharpton: “How do the Democrats — how do all of us on that side — say January 6th was wrong if you can have the same pictures going on on college campuses?”
Mika Brzezinski: “Good Lord, don’t make a parallel with January… pic.twitter.com/SlLH9COUxL
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) May 2, 2024
Brzezinski did then concede the optics are like what was seen during the Capitol incursion in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
“That’s the place we’ve all been sitting in, watching this, going, ‘What the hell is going on? What are these universities doing? Why aren’t they doing something?’ And I’ll echo the horror that this does look like January 6th. What a terrible example for our students,” she said.
Sharpton contended that the campus protesters had "lost the message."
"It's about them, it's not about pushing the cause," he said. "They need to ask themselves if they were sincere. Are you really focusing on what's going on in Gaza, about the children, about the women, about the innocent people, and in Israel?
"Are you focusing on whether or not you are violent or whether or not you can say the most incendiary statement? How are you guiding this? It's about them, and I think that they've lost the message," Sharpton added.
He suggested the group had been infiltrated by outside activists.
Scarborough responded that the group was certainly a mix, but no doubt included people who "hate Jews."
"These people are here ... because Jews are involved," he added.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, former President Donald Trump commended the police departments in New York and Los Angeles for breaking up campus occupations at Columbia University and UCLA.
"These are radical left lunatics, and they’ve got to be stopped now, because it’s going to go on and on, and it’s going to get worse and worse,” the Republican presidential candidate said.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re not letting the Radical Left morons take over this country! pic.twitter.com/wPFjCKIuvz
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 2, 2024
President Joe Biden, after several days of not forcefully addressing the issue, spoke from the White House on Thursday, saying, “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to chaos.”
“Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law,” Biden said. “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a peaceful protest."
President Biden on college campus protests: "There's the right to protest, but not the right to chaos." pic.twitter.com/wtmvjOrLWH
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 2, 2024
Early last week, Biden repeated a reporter’s question back to her regarding the protests, saying he does condemn “anti-Semitic protests” but adding, “I also condemn those that don’t know what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
The White House had released a similar on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand statement the day before, April 21.
Biden and MSNBC personalities like Sharpton, Brzezinski and Scarborough know all the chaos is hurting the Democrats' chances in this fall's elections.
So finally, they're willing to say what has been true all along: These protests are not examples of free speech, but of campus chaos.
