MSNBC host Al Sharpton said Monday on “Deadline” that former President Donald Trump having said that white people were at the “back of the line” for COVID-19 treatments at an Arizona rally while black people were in the bleachers behind him was “optics” to “sell racism.”
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill said, “I have just got ask the Rev, I mean, I looked at that rally, and I listened to what he said, that white people were being denied the vaccine, the clear message that black people were being prioritized for the vaccine over white people. Everyone knows what he was trying to do. He was trying to get people to be mad at black people. What did those black people sitting behind him think when he said that? It’s like I don’t get that.”
Sharpton said, “The fact that we all saw them sitting there, clearly they were put there for the optics. There was one guy that went around the whole 2020 race with a ‘Blacks for Trump’ sign. It seems like now he’s got more. They are put there strategically so that he can say the most racist things and not look racist.”
He added, “I mean who gets a group of people, ‘Blacks for Trump,’ and just happens to sit there, and they happen to get within camera view? I mean, no one could be that stupid to think that that just happened to be they got the good seats. That is choreographed so he can sell racism and look like he’s not a racist. I think it is something that we all ought to deplore. I wouldn’t waste my time worrying about who he props up.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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