Jack
01-28-2008, 08:47 PM
ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday weighed in on the raging debate inside the Democratic Party over former President Bill Clinton's advocacy on behalf of his wife's campaign, with two choice words for the former president: "Shut up."
On ABC's "The View," Sharpton said voters are hearing "race charges, race-tinged rhetoric" in the Democratic primary campaign, and called on the former president to cease.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE (http://www.abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4204523).
"I think it's time for him to just be quiet," said Sharpton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pt787hGESQ), who was a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. "I think it's time for him to stop. As one of the most outspoken people in America, there's a time to shut up, and I think that time has come."
Sharpton didn't say which comments in particular bothered him. But many Democrats were particularly upset that the former president made an explicit comparison (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/false-pushback.html) of Obama's campaign to Jesse Jackson's victories in South Carolina in 1984 and 1988, in an apparent attempt to explain why his wife didn't win the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
For his part, Jackson told The New York Times (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/jackson-not-upset-by-clinton-remarks/index.html) that he wasn't bothered by the comparison. Still, he told the newspaper that he had spoken to both Obama and President Clinton over the weekend, and told both to "take it to a higher ground."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/01/sharpton-to-bil.html
On ABC's "The View," Sharpton said voters are hearing "race charges, race-tinged rhetoric" in the Democratic primary campaign, and called on the former president to cease.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE (http://www.abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4204523).
"I think it's time for him to just be quiet," said Sharpton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pt787hGESQ), who was a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. "I think it's time for him to stop. As one of the most outspoken people in America, there's a time to shut up, and I think that time has come."
Sharpton didn't say which comments in particular bothered him. But many Democrats were particularly upset that the former president made an explicit comparison (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/false-pushback.html) of Obama's campaign to Jesse Jackson's victories in South Carolina in 1984 and 1988, in an apparent attempt to explain why his wife didn't win the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
For his part, Jackson told The New York Times (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/jackson-not-upset-by-clinton-remarks/index.html) that he wasn't bothered by the comparison. Still, he told the newspaper that he had spoken to both Obama and President Clinton over the weekend, and told both to "take it to a higher ground."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/01/sharpton-to-bil.html