Al Sharpton: Donald Trump is the White Don King

In an interview with Glenn Thrush he talked less about the Democratic primary than Donald Trump who he seems quite impressed by.

I find his comments about Trump interesting-though surely he doesn't plan to endorse him?!

I don't love that he's leaving Hillary hanging this long.

"Sharpton has no intention of pulling the trigger immediately, though that could change if she blows out Sanders in South Carolina this week; he took his time in “backing” (but not officially endorsing) Obama in the primaries over Clinton eight years ago, claiming caustically that “Hillary Clinton has never done nothing for us” – a reference he says was meant only to refer to his organization, the Harlem-based National Action Network, but others interpreted as a broader rebuke of her attitude towards blacks."

"But he’s nothing if not acutely conscious of his leverage – and thinks it would be stupid (he uses the word “preemptive”) to throw away the influence he currently enjoys. Will I endorse sooner or later?” he says, “Yeah.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/sharpton-trump-is-the-white-don-king-219601#ixzz40tkVY0w2

But you don't want to milk this too far I don't think. An endorsement after the fact-after she's already got the thing locked up is worth less than when it's really needed. Once the cow barn is open and she's already galloping on the way to victory it's worth less Reverend Al. 

I wouldn't over leverage myself. And with all the talk about comments said in 2008 that was a harsh one. Not to re-litigate it but what at that time had Barrack Obama specifically done for NAN?

Anyway, I presume he will endorse her eventually. But surely it's clear you're always more grateful to the person who endorses when you need it to the guy who does it when the thing is already locked up. 

Anyway Al has been impressed with Trump. He was impressed by what Trump did on Saturday night which was very impressive. 

Trump is a very interesting species mutation in the Republican party which is why it will be tougher than it normally would for an Establishment GOPer to take him out-Rubio seems to be that designate at this point. 

The trouble is you can't pigeonhole Trump as on the Far Right like most GOP outsiders of the past. In many ways he has taken some very non-ideological positions and some moderate or liberal sounding positions. 

But this hasn't hurt him either. He has an interesting ability to actually win conservatives, moderates and liberals in the party. He can win a blood red state like SC and a very moderate purple state like NH. While Ted Cruz hopes to compete in red states and Rubio in the more purple less red states Trump can do both. 

Anyway Sharpton is giving Trump what sounds like some real praise here-comparing him to Don King? The white Don King? Remember, King was Sharpton's mentor.

"But as we sat in Sharpton’s small MSNBC office in Rockefeller Center for the latest edition of POLITICO’s “Off Message” podcast, the reverend’s mind was very much on Trump – whom he sees as a menace, but an amusing, familiar menace – a fellow outer-borough hustler who’s not quite a friend, but certainly not an enemy."

“I think what he has said has been biased and bigoted, but I don’t know if Donald Trump is really a bigoted guy,” says Sharpton when asked about the reality star’s comments on Mexicans and Muslims.

And Sharpton knows exactly who the GOP frontrunner reminds him of – and it’s not Benito Mussolini or Huey Long or George Wallace – it’s a black guy, a motor-mouthed, sprout-haired boxing promoter who befriended Sharpton and brought him into the glamorous, big-money world of Atlantic City prizefighting three decades ago.

“The best way I can describe Donald Trump to friends is to say if Don King had been born white he’d be Donald Trump,” says Sharpton with a broadening smile. “Both of them are great self-promoters and great at just continuing to talk even if you’re not talking back at ‘em.”

"The 61-year-old civil rights leader then launches into a crazy story. King and Trump were friendly, and King suggested the brash developer court Sharpton, in part to improve his relationship with Mike Tyson, who was close to the preacher at the time."

“Don King had me fly with him and Trump to Atlantic in Trump’s helicopter, and it was one of the most memorable things in my life to sit on that big, black Trump helicopter… both of them talking nonstop, not listening to each other,” he recalls. “And I'm sitting there. It was probably the longest ride… I ever was on. Both of them shut me up – I haven't been quiet since.”

When I ask Sharpton if he actually likes Trump, he shrugs. “I mean, I don’t like what he’s doing. But I don’t dislike him. He’s the kind of personality that is hard to dislike – he’s entertaining, let's put it that way… You’d have to be a New Yorker to understand him.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/sharpton-trump-is-the-white-don-king-219601#ixzz40tomnxRp

I agree there. I'm a New Yorker and you can't say Trump isn't entertaining.

"And that’s when he gets to his keenest observation – the best assessment of Trump’s deepest motivations I’ve yet heard, and one that Beltway pundits who don’t understand the tangled psychological geography of the five boroughs miss: Trump may have been born with millions, and erected huge buildings that bear his name, but he still feels the resentment of a gaudy, new-money outsider who has decided to burn down a Yankee establishment that always viewed him as a garish, grasping joke."

“Donald Trump was a Queens guy,” says Sharpton, who hails from Brooklyn’s Brownsville, the city’s toughest neighborhood, a collection of housing projects jammed hard between Queens and the Jamaica Bay swamps – and the scene of all-out crack war in the 1980s and 1990s.

“His father was a successful real estate guy but they were Queens guys. They were outer borough [and] had to break in the big Manhattan aristocracy. He was an outsider, rich, but outsider. He was not part of the Manhattan elite. So, he always had this outsider feeling – us against them. So, in many ways, when I read people talk about, ‘Well, do you have a billionaire as a populist?’ He does feel like he’s one of the guys who was shut out.”

"Then, a hint of a kindred spirit: “On the other side of the coin, but I was shut out because of race. He was shut out because of geography and a number of other things. [It’s an] unforgiving environment and a city that could easily swallow you up. Easily.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/sharpton-trump-is-the-white-don-king-219601#ixzz40tphtDQD

However, there is some real signals that he will be with Hillary in the end, but he is still milking it a little.

"People close to Sharpton say he likes Clinton, and is probably inclined to endorse her – but he doesn’t quite trust her, wants to see how her sputtering campaign performs, and is intent on exercising maximum leverage on the issues he cares most about: community policing, sentencing laws, urban economic development. When I turn the tape off, he says, “The minute you endorse you become a surrogate and I want to be an advocate.”

"Yet, as a black Brooklynite who grew up in the most racially combustible era in the city’s history, Sharpton is a little more skeptical of Sanders, who grew up in the same all-white, Jewish and Italian neighborhood in southern Brooklyn my family occupied for three generations. When I mention that I’ve been trying to get Sanders (thus far unsuccessfully) to talk on the podcast about how growing up in the neighborhood influenced his racial views, Sharpton nearly jumps out of his chair."

“That conversation would tell me what he’s really — knows and is comfortable with about race … I think Sanders has a good background,” he says. “But coming from New York, again, I want to know where, at home, you can show me your sensitivity to the race in New York, where I know was a cesspool for bigotry, particularly in [those] years.”

On one hand, he gives Sanders a pass for citing the Wall Street plutocracy as the source of racial evils, and thinks the Clinton campaign’s attack on the Vermont senator as a color-blind, single-issue candidate goes a little too far. “I think that it’s — I won’t say “manufactured,” but I think it’s exaggerated,” he says. “My argument to Sanders — which he has dealt with now — was that if you close all the big banks and everything is brought down, that still doesn’t make us equal, given the race gap in employment, given the race gap in wealth and property ownership. You’ve got to address race.”

"He’s far less forgiving of Sanders’ recent suggestion that Clinton has been “hugging” Obama in an effort to win over black voters. “I think that a lot of people resented that,” he said. “[Y]ou can't use certain terminologies without people saying, “Well, wait a minute, now. They were working together through some tight stuff.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/sharpton-trump-is-the-white-don-king-219601#ixzz40trKG1uA

Part of what has given Sharpton gravitas in recent years was his close relationship with the President. If he were less close with the next President that wouldn't be good for him.

Don't get me wrong-HRC doesn't need his endorsement at this point, especially after securing Jim Clyburn's in SC. But all I would say to the Rev is what you do in a foxhole is what counts.

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/politics/rev-al-sharpton-meets-clinton-sanders-article-1.2538718

P.S. I will grant Sharpton his point on Trump though. As much as I don't like so much of what he's said I can't help but like the way he says things. 

And then there are the things I like-when he starts on Jeb Bush and lying us into the war. I agree that's what happened.