Rep. Steve King (R-IA) slammed “race hustlers” like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for trying to “monetize” the civil unrest in Ferguson and raise their profiles.
“They’re race hustlers,” King said this week on Iowa’s WHO radio. “Tawana Brawley, the one who falsely accused rape that Al Sharpton made the beginnings of his career off of, he’s never apologized for that.” Jackson was reportedly booed when he asked for donations during a Ferguson rally.
“All the violence that was perpetrated in the name of a rape that never existed,” King said, while speaking of Sharpton, who is reportedly the White House’s man on the ground in Ferguson. “So, when people pit people against each other on the basis of race, Jan, that is a sin to do that. It costs lives in this country and it causes social unrest and it keeps this country from healing together.”
King, according to Talking Points Memo, also criticized the Congressional Black Caucus–after mentioning that there is no “Congressional White Caucus”–for being a “self-segregated caucus” that is “always looking to place the race card.”
“They’re always looking to divide people down that line,” he said. “And I have friends in that caucus. I get along with them personally, but their agenda is to play the race card.”
King also said that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder “had a perfect opportunity to eliminate a lot of this friction in this country,” but they have instead “created friction rather than eliminated it.”
He also slammed Ferguson rioters for their “irrational” behavior, which included burning down and punishing the community even before they had all of the facts about the Michael Brown’s death.
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