Featured Image Credit: Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images
Topics: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Politics, US News
Britt Jones
Topics: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Politics, US News
Jesse Jackson's funeral was an occasion where politicians and former presidents bid farewell to a pivotal civil rights activist – but his son has since come out to hit out at Barack Obama and Joe Biden as he claims they used the service for their own agenda.
Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Kamala Harris and Biden all congregated on Friday (March 6) to pay their respects to Jackson, who died at age 84 last month.
The activist was well-known in US politics after running for president on two separate occasions and carrying on with the Black Civil Rights Movement after Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in 1968.
Jackson’s memorial was filled with memories from those who knew him, but when it got to the two former presidents, things took an odd turn – leading Jesse Jackson Jr to slam them both.
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Per the New York Post, Jackson Jr. said at a private memorial service at Rainbow Push Coalition headquarters in Chicago on Saturday: “Yesterday, I listened for several hours to three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson.”
He added: “He maintained a tense relationship with the political order, not because the presidents were white or black, but the demands of our message, the demands of speaking for the least of these – those who are disinherited, the damned, the dispossessed, the disrespected – demanded not Democratic or Republican solutions, but demanded a consistent, prophetic voice that at no point in time ever sold us out as people.
“And it speaks volumes about who the Rev. Jesse Jackson was.”
Jackson Jr.’s comments come after the previous day had three major presidential figures talk about his father, but also about the current political landscape.
Obama said in his address that ‘it's hard to hope’ when ‘every day you wake up to things you just didn't think were possible’.
The former POTUS added: “Each day we're told ... to fear each other, to turn on each other and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don't even count at all."
He continued: “Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength. We see science and expertise denigrated, while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards."
Former presidential candidate Harris also seemed to bring up President Trump, seeming to reference her prediction to how his second term would play out.
"I'm not into saying 'I told you so,' but we did see it coming," Harris said. "But what I did not predict is that we would not have Jesse Jackson with us to get through this."
As for Biden, he oddly seemed to swipe at the audience, telling them: "I'm hell of lot smarter than most of you. Well, all kidding aside, it makes you feel really small, makes you feel really small."
Biden added, appearing to reference the current administration: "I don't think things would have been the same had Jesse not been around, because Jesse decided that his life was ensuring that we never fully walk away from it either.
"Because there's bad times like now. We're in a tough spot, folks, we've got an administration that doesn't share any of the values that we have. I don't think I'm exaggerating a little bit."
UNILAD reached out to the representatives of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Barack Obama for comment.