Politics

Al Sharpton: Trump Attacks Obama Because He’s ‘Everything Would Have Wanted To Be In Life’

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David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Rev. Al Sharpton said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the reason President Donald Trump attacks his predecessor so often is that former President Barack Obama “is everything [Trump] would have wanted to be in life.”

“To attack Barack Obama — because he is so obsessed that Barack is everything he would have wanted to be in life, that he can’t stand that a man who happens also to be black, has hit every mark that he could not make and didn’t have a rich father to finance it — it just drives him crazy.”

Sharpton said that black voters are “very similar to other voters” in that they vote for people who deliver for them and “address” their issues, suggesting that Trump did not do enough of that and “even under the best economic circumstances of the last three-and-a-half years, blacks were still doubly unemployed, and the president never addressed that, never said, ‘here’s a plan for that.’” (RELATED: House Democratic Whip Disputes Black Employment Numbers, Says It Was Lowest During Slavery)

Sharpton suggested the situation has further deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown because Trump has not adequately addressed the higher infection rates among blacks and only offered lip service by saying, “Oh I’m concerned.”

“That’s the last word from him: no plan for that,” Sharpton said. “When we raised that black-owned businesses and other minority businesses were not getting anywhere near what they should out of the stimulus package — no plan for that. So what would he think black voters are going to do? I’m surprised he’s at 3% [black voter support].”(RELATED: Van Jones Tells Democrats To ‘Wake Up’: Trump Is ‘Causing Us Problems’ With the Black Vote)

Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott predicted that Trump could attract up to 15% of black voters in the 2020 presidential election in February.