Civil rights activist and one time Democrat candidate for president Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke early during the third day of the Democrat National Convention, straying from his prepared remarks and accidentally calling Democrat VP nominee Tim Kaine “Tom.”
Jackson began his remarks saying he proudly stood in support of Hillary Clinton for President of the United States, but in the same breath also thanked Vermont’s socialist Senator Bernie Sanders for “energizing this campaign season with ideas and hope.”
The aging civil rights leader then went out of his prepared remarks and insisted, “The Bern must never grow cold.”
The Chicago-based reverend next took a veiled swipe at GOP nominee Donald Trump by invoking the “stormy season of violent campaign rhetoric” and added, “there’s a tug of war for America’s soul. We have a clear choice. Take down walls of separation, and build bridges of hope and unity.”
Jackson then laid out some of the reasons American should choose Hillary including that she will “appoint a fair Supreme Court.” The senior Jackson then noted that Hillary has already chosen a “skilled administrator” but garbled the Democrat VP nominee’s name calling him “Tom Kaine.”
The Operation Push chief next insisted that Hillary “can be trusted to honor the most progressive platform our Party’s ever had.” Ever obsessed with feeling the pain, the Reverend claimed Hillary “will never forget our pain, she will never forget us.”
Jackson spent a large part of the under ten-minute speech on guns, especially the bloodletting in his hometown of Chicago. More than once in the speech Jackson called for an “assault weapons ban.”
He told the crowd that Hillary “will be trusted to ban assault weapons turning our communities into killing fields. With 2,300 shot in Chicago this year, nearly 250 killed this year alone.”
He then again called to the crowd to “Ban these assault weapons now.”
“Nationally there are about 45 million people still illiterate, more blacks incarcerated than graduate from college these are scars that must be changed,” Jackson continued on the gun ban theme. “Hillary understands the historic dimensions of the agony, hope and promise of Black Lives Matter. She knows our scars and our suffering. From Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown to Alton Sterling, and far too many others, the shootings of young black men must stop. And we deeply regret the killing of police officers with powerful assault weapons. They resonate deeply in our soul. Those police should be alive today. Ban assault weapons now.”
Jackson also said Hillary can be trusted not to “insult our Hispanic neighbors” and called for people to “Stop insulting Muslims now.”
“We can trust her not to mass deportation of 15 million people and disrupt our families now,” he added.
Jackson went on to make some dubious claims about President Obama’s jobs creation record.
President Obama, more jobs, he came to office we had lost 800,000 jobs, we have not lost a single job, a single month since Barack has been president, shell sustain that drive and keep the hope alive. We’ve never lost a battle that we fought and never won a battle unless we fought. That journey began in 1984 and 1988, we built a winning coalition, the Rainbow Coalition, registering and empowering millions of voters. This is a new day.
The Reverend ended his remarks with a chant, as his so often does, saying “It’s healing time, it’s hope time, and it’s Hillary time,” over and over again.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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