Politics

Sharpton: GOP Opposes Loretta Lynch To ‘Send A Message To Overly Qualified Women Or Blacks’ [VIDEO]

Alex Griswold Media Reporter
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Civil rights activist, tax cheat and MSNBC host Al Sharpton opined on “PoliticsNation” that Republicans were holding up a vote on President Barack Obama’s Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch to “send a message” to “overly qualified women or blacks.” (VIDEO: Byron Allen: Sharpton Is ‘Black Pawn’ For ‘White Masters,’ Obama Is ‘Bought And Paid For’)

“There [is] also some level of dog-whistling here, because they did confirm the Secretary of Defense and others,” Sharpton said. “But the fact that it is a woman and an African-American also plays to some elements on the far-right to want to send a message to overly qualified women or blacks. I mean, it seems to me to be somewhat singled out here that we’re going to make an example out of Lynch.”

“I agree,” said Salon’s Joan Walsh. “At best, it’s insensitive to the message it’s showing. At worst it is sending that message. And [Democratic Illinois] Senator Dick Durbin, who happened to be white, compared her to Rosa Parks. [Republican Arizona Senator John] McCain got really angry about that.”

It should go without saying that Walsh’s account of Durbin comments was a bald-faced lie. McCain wasn’t angry because Durbin compared Lynch to Rosa Parks; he was angry because Durbin compared Republicans to Southern segregationists, saying they were making her “sit in the back of the bus.”

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