[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 22 (Thursday, March 2, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H635-H636]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        AMERICANS DESERVE A BETTER PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY CONTEST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Scarborough) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, we are engaged right now in a 
Presidential primary contest on both the Republican and the Democratic 
side, and charges have been thrown back and forth, but I think America 
deserves better than this.
  I know in Robert Kennedy's campaign in 1968, we got better than this; 
and in Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1980 we also got better than this. 
They seemed to have appealed to the better angels in all of us.
  Unfortunately, today in Washington a man by the name of Al Sharpton 
is meeting with the Clinton administration and several Democratic 
Members of Congress. These Democratic Members of Congress continue to 
be in a close alliance with Mr. Sharpton, and there continues to be a 
close alliance between Mr. Sharpton and the Democratic Party, 
especially in New York City.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Sharpton is a man and a political figure who has 
been described by most media outlets

[[Page H636]]

as a racist and a bigot. Sadly, Mr. Sharpton's record has been 
deplorable, as have those Democrats who continue to embrace him and his 
views.
  The Wall Street Journal wrote on February 29 of this year, ``Mr. Gore 
and Mr. Bradley are willfully blind to Mr. Sharpton's form of racism.'' 
In fact, last night on CNN, Jeff Greenfield asked both Democratic 
candidates whether they were willing to distance themselves from Mr. 
Sharpton. Both of them continued to legitimize his presence in the New 
York primary; and Mr. Gore actually justified visiting him, after 
telling reporters he was only going to New York to visit his sister.
  The Calgary Herald wrote in 1999, ``Mr. Sharpton has been linked to 
the Nation of Islam, the radical, anti-Semitic black organization that 
is led by Louis Farrakhan.'' And in 1995, at what is called the 
Freddy's Fashion Mart Boycott, the Wall Street Journal quoted Mr. 
Sharpton and said, ``Sharpton turned a landlord-tenant dispute between 
the Jewish owner of Freddy's clothing store and a black subtenant into, 
`a theater of hatred' in Harlem, marching outside the store screaming 
about `bloodsucking Jews' and `Jew bastards.' '' That was the Wall 
Street Journal, 2/29.
  The Weekly Standard wrote on 2/28 of this year, ``Sharpton juiced up 
the crowds about `white interlopers' and `diamond merchants.' ''
  The Wall Street Journal on February 29 of this year said, ``One 
protester, Roland Smith, ran into the store, shot and wounded three 
whites and a Pakistani. Then he set a fire killing five Hispanics and 
one African American security guard, taunted by the protesters as a 
`cracker lover.' Smith then fatally shot himself.''
  Unfortunately, most Americans, including those Democrats that now 
race to embrace Mr. Sharpton and his brand of politics, remember in 
1988 the Tawana Brawley Hoax. The Washington Post wrote in 1998, 
``Sharpton and others falsely accused a former assistant DA of 
attacking and raping 15-year-old Brawley.''
  The Wall Street Journal on February 29 of this year wrote, ``Sharpton 
insisted that Brawley, a 15-year-old black girl, had been raped by a 
band of white men practicing Irish Republican Army rituals.''
  And as The Washington Post reported in July of 1998, ``Sharpton and 
lawyers Alton Maddox and Vernon Mason were found guilty of defamation, 
with Sharpton guilty on 7 of 22 counts.''
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, this brand of racism that attacks not 
only whites, but especially Jews, is the lowest form of anti-Semitism, 
and it is a form of anti-Semitism that has been practiced over the past 
15, 20 years by Mr. Sharpton.
  How respectable Presidential candidates in the Democratic Party can 
openly embrace such a man and, in fact today, how many Members of the 
Democratic side of this House, who are asking the American people to 
take control of this institution, which is the people's House, after 
all, how they can continue to embrace a man who has made violently 
anti-Semitic statements, who has bent over backwards over the past 15 
years to stir up racial hatred, not only in New York State but across 
this country, how can they embrace such a man? How Mr. Gore can go to 
New York City and embrace such a man and then defend that action last 
night is beyond me, and it is beneath contempt for this House.

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