Al Sharpton: Newt Gingrich Using 'Racial Demagoguery' (VIDEO)

Al Sharpton blasted Newt Gingrich on Tuesday, accusing the presidential candidate of using "racial demagoguery" to win votes in the contentious South Carolina primary.

Gingrich's highly charged exchange with Juan Williams about his infamous comments on food stamps and child labor became the most talked-about moment of Monday's debate in the Palmetto State. On Tuesday's "Rachel Maddow Show," Sharpton and Maddow discussed the debate, which seemed to trouble them both.

Sharpton noted that South Carolina still uses the Confederate Flag, saying that issues of race had to be seen in a different light there. He pronounced himself to be aghast when the audience cheered Gingrich for taking on Williams, who he called a "black conservative on Fox." (Williams would likely disagree with the "conservative" characterization.)

"Gingrich and others are playing to an element they believe to be there," Sharpton said. He also picked up Gingrich's comments earlier in the month, where he said that the "African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps."

"This is not subtle," Sharpton said. "This is not some inference...this is blatant." He pointed out that the majority of people on food stamps are white.

Sharpton concluded by saying that Gingrich had actually been to black communities with him as part of an education initiative, and that his language around race had been markedly different. For that reason, he said, he saw Gingrich's current comments as "a cynical manipulation of racial demagoguery in order to get some votes."

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Comments

[Dee Jamacek]

04:25 PM on 01/21/2012

Herman Cain is so much more than this clown.

[pg9769]

11:14 PM on 01/19/2012

of course Al, anything you don't like is racism.

[fgrammit]

08:09 AM on 01/20/2012

and anything like that you say is racism

[GetRealView]

08:14 PM on 01/19/2012

Jimmy Carter is the only prominent Georgian to overcome the racism of the Deep South state.

[Piper2]

07:45 PM on 01/19/2012

I would Never Offen God by calling Al Sharpton a Rev. This is a Vile, UnGodly Black man who can't seem to stop lying about white people....

[gilbskg]

10:16 PM on 01/19/2012

Horse hooey

[chocolate cherries]

03:28 PM on 01/20/2012

MOST ministers are vile. Robertson is the most offensive "Godly" man I have ever seen. What a Charlatan. BTW, if you think this campaign has not been laced with racism, google search. White men who are not smart enough to overcome racism...

[blankcheck]

01:35 PM on 02/04/2012

That must be the vast majority . . . right? Oh, fairness god? I vote to make you the judge and jury on what is racism, I can tell your diagnosis is right on! Oh, to be so smart as you...................

[alferrer]

05:21 PM on 01/19/2012

Race, race, race. What else is new Reverend?

[Peter Zin]

04:04 PM on 01/19/2012

why does sharpton talks like that? His voice is really annoying.

[chocolate cherries]

05:07 PM on 01/19/2012

Not as bad as Limbaugh. You can actually hear him struggle to breath when he talks.

[project cooper]

03:53 PM on 01/19/2012

Looks like Al wants to be the only one to play his game.

[Puzzlr]

03:37 PM on 01/19/2012

If I were white, I'd be insulted. For too long people like Newt have used race as a means to deflect attention from their true motives. Every white person should have shouted, 'talk about jobs!". Instead they clapped.

[Doyle McCurley]

04:19 PM on 01/19/2012

If I were black I would work and say I know he is talking about the people that dont work.

[gilbskg]

10:18 PM on 01/19/2012

Most blacks are working, and they still know a "dog whistle" when they hear one...especially here in the South.

[Puzzlr]

12:50 PM on 01/20/2012

The issue isn't who is working and who isn't. If that were the case, then Newt would have mentioned all the white people who aren't working or who are on welfare. No, this is just a case of Newt pulling attention from the real issues by using race-baiting. Its a time and true method that has worked since blacks were given the right to vote. Its time that it stopped, but every year we get another rendition of Willie Horton. Shame.

[chocolate cherries]

05:09 PM on 01/19/2012

yep...they clapped like a bunch of braindead seals. Racism is alive and well in this "great" country.

[Just Ask Jheri]

03:17 PM on 01/19/2012

To be African American in America and having worked 250 years without any pay -
Who should really care what an African American receives? I agree with Rev.
that Newt the playa on many levels played the audience by way of "a cynical
manipulation of racial demagoguery in order to get some votes."

[Doyle McCurley]

03:51 PM on 01/19/2012

Jheri I doubt you have ever been to Africa. I was born there which makes me more African American than you. I will admit this would be a much better country if the African slave owners had not sold their own people to the Europeans. Al Sharpton has not worked since he was 17 years old and makes a lot of money. He is like the rest of the blacks except he gets paid.

[OceanEric]

05:17 PM on 01/19/2012

As a euro-american, I don't believe someone born in Europe is more euro american than me (born here). I definitely agree with Rev Sharpton, however.

[gilbskg]

10:19 PM on 01/19/2012

"He is like the rest of the blacks except he gets paid."

Thanks for proving our point.

[Bronxdude]

12:49 PM on 01/19/2012

Eric Cantor calls the Occupy Wall Street Movement a Mob? Out of curiosity, my brother recently attended a Tea Party rally in Monkey-Butt, Georgia. People were quoting the Bible, toting guns and professing their Christian virtues, while waving derogatory placards equating President Obama with Hitler and the “N” word. Several signs held by children compared Obama to an ignorant cartoon character in blackface. One woman held two signs: the first called Michelle a “welfare queen,” and the second proclaimed that the Obama girls would be pregnant before age 16. Outrageous! Inside the meeting, people were screaming that their country was being taken over by immigrants and minorities, and that America needed to return to the traditional values “our founding fathers” envisioned. During the question and answer period, one lady shouted that she was against government run healthcare, but was satisfied with Medicare. Attendees questioned Obama’s citizenship, called him “an illegal immigrant,” said his birth certificate was a forgery, and asserted that the Obama government had opened “socialist reeducation camps” in North Dakota. The attendees were grossly misinformed, and it was fairly easy to see that they had been completely brainwashed via spoon-fed lies propagated by Fox News—the official propaganda machine for the Republican Party. Using loathsome code words imbued with racist overtones, the Republican agenda is to transform 2011 American into 1950 America, and they are not interested in civil debate. That’s why they are resorting to shameful, salacious, and bigoted scare tactics to advance the “southern strategy” and foment racial tension.

[mdsman]

01:40 PM on 01/19/2012

any pictures of this oputrageous behavior?

[Urfubar12]

02:12 PM on 01/19/2012

Yes.

1.) Go to google images
2.) Type in Tea Party Rally
3.) Hit enter, or search
4.) Wait 2.1 seconds
5.) Click first, second, or third image

I hope this helped.

[gilbskg]

10:20 PM on 01/19/2012

Where have you been for the past three years?

[Urfubar12]

02:09 PM on 01/19/2012

Fanning you for "Monkey-Butt, GA"...and I liked the rest too!

[Bronxdude]

12:46 PM on 01/19/2012

Systemic change invariably generates anxiety and fear, which was the case in 1964 when President Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act through Congress. Republicans were comfortable with the status quo and wrongly believed that granting Black Americans equal protection under the Constitution would somehow destabilize America, both economically and politically. With regard to immigration and financial reform, the same type of baseless fear is rearing its ugly head in 2011. For Fox “News” and their Borg cheerleaders, fear mongering proliferated through vicious lies is the preferred weapon of choice, and the disgusting success of their disinformation campaign is quite shocking: 62% of republicans believe Hawaii is a foreign country, 72% believe Obama is the antichrist, 84% believe Obama is a “Manchurian Candidate” planted by China, 71% equate Obama with Hitler or Stalin, 74% believe all illegal immigrants are criminals, and 92% believe that Medicare is not socialized healthcare. According to Fairleigh Dickinson University, Fox News viewers are the most misinformed and deceived viewers on earth! No surprise that the epicenter of Koch Brother support is concentrated in the desolate hinterlands of historically undereducated, undeveloped, unsophisticated, and segregated Southern states. Louisiana and Alabama rank at the bottom on every public health indicator monitored by CDC and DHHS, yet Southern republicans oppose any reform. Infant mortality in Mississippi is equal to Haiti. Not surprisingly, however, Republicans from Southern states rank at the top when it comes to pork barrel spending. 
 

[Bronxdude]

12:45 PM on 01/19/2012

Desperate to protect their “real” base - the Tea Party, Republicans like Newt have resurrected the “southern strategy” Wallace and Reagan used to win votes by encouraging and exploiting racial fear among disillusioned, disenfranchised uneducated southerners too deluded by chicanery to grasp the complexity of the grand deception being perpetrated. Wallace linked states’ rights to segregation, Reagan linked entitlement programs to fictitious “welfare queens” using food stamps to buy Cadillacs, and Bush 41 linked Willie Horton to minority vengeance. By polarizing America, the appeal of Newt’s anti-Obama campaign has been partially successful, especially within the ranks of the misinformed and undereducated. If there is any doubt that Republicans are fomenting racial hatred, just watch Fox News - the official republican propaganda machine. According to O’Reilly - usually explained in shrouded lingo and hyperbole imbued with Jim Crow era code words, the path to the White House is linked to instilling fear that under Obama, its payback time; people of color are coming to take what's yours, whether it’s ACORN, Van Jones, or Shirley Sherrod. Fox News is obsessed with making decent people feel afraid of minorities, as if minorities are not real Americans. Republicans like Newt and Perry have incited fear by portraying President Obama as a reverse racist eager to exact revenge for past misdeeds. This time around, Muslim Americans are the bogeymen. Next time, will it be you? 
 

[chocolate cherries]

03:40 PM on 01/20/2012

It is my privelege to fan you, Bronxdude. You posts are magnificent.

[BiznessLady]

08:19 AM on 01/21/2012

F & F and a star for the Boogey-down name.

[Bronxdude]

12:44 PM on 01/19/2012

In an effort to purloin control, Republicans continue to sabotage America’s economic recovery, manufacture outrageous canards, and, by demonizing and scapegoating immigrants, teachers, firefighters, minorities, gays, victims, and the poor, frighten Americans into blindly accepting their asinine policies. Republicans: You’re entitled to your opinion, but not your own facts, and here are some irrefutable facts: President Obama is not Muslim, but republican Newt Gingrich is a serial adulterer; President Obama is not Kenyan, but republican David Vitter is a serial adulterer; President Obama is not Indonesian, but republican Tom Delay is a convicted felon; President Obama is not a socialist, but republican Bob Ney is a convicted felon; President Obama is not a Marxist, but republican John Ensign is an adulterer; President Obama is Christian, and republican Mark Sanford is an adulterer; President Obama is not a communist, but republican Lewis Libby is a convicted felon; President Obama is not a “reverse racist,” but republican Mark Foley did resign for sending sexually explicit emails to underage male pages; President Obama was born in Hawaii, and republican Larry Craig did resign for licentious conduct; President Obama did close the “doughnut hole” in Medicare, and republican Jack Abramoff is a convicted Republican operative, and finally, President Obama did graduate from Harvard (with honors), and republican Donald Lukens is a convicted sex offender. While touting their morally superior Christian values, and selling themselves as self-appointed messianic saviors of America, these holier-than-thou, self-righteous misfits underscore the toxic hypocrisy and sardonic conceit that undergirds the GOP—the party of perverse double standards. Wiener has to leave but Vitter can stay? Such hypocrisy!

[Just Ask Jheri]

03:44 PM on 01/19/2012

Thank you for your heartfelt words - ALL true!

We will continuously move forward in this country because the melting pot
is overflowing . . . Interracial marriages and courtships, etc. have put the fire out
on listening to their shameful, salacious, and bigoted scare tactics to advance
the “southern strategy” and foment racial tension. However, pockets still exist, but not
enough to do much damage. Key word - Transparency!

President Obama's 2008 election is PROOF! Blacks did not elect him - whites did
just like the majority of African Americans are not ANYTHING more than whites.

More importantly, The GOP has put party before country in hopes of defeating
President Obama. Voters have watched this stagnation for three years and will
not forget its cause in November.

[chocolate cherries]

03:42 PM on 01/20/2012

here here!! f & f, Jheri!

[DRouss3977]

10:35 AM on 01/19/2012

The GOP is racist, plain and simple! In this age of instant coverage, the GOP can't hide their bigotry and racism any more.

[Doyle McCurley]

03:59 PM on 01/19/2012

Bigotry by definition is a good thing. It was afterall those Republican people that fought for blacks to win their freedom. What a mistake that was.

[gilbskg]

10:24 PM on 01/19/2012

Same name, different party. This is no more the party of Lincoln than it is the party of TR. Nice to see you don't bother trying to hide your sheet.

[rosiebag]

10:32 AM on 01/19/2012

Last night this tax cheat tore into Rommney on his tax returns.