The Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday scoffed at the possibility President Trump planned to honor civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. on the federal holiday that bears his name.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit on Monday to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. The pair, joined by acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, spent roughly two minutes at the site, laying a wreath before returning to the White House. Trump also issued a tweet and presidential proclamation commemorating King.
“I honestly, first of all, don’t believe they intended to do anything for Dr. King’s birthday,” Sharpton, a fervent Trump critic, said during a panel on MSNBC. “Who does going to a memorial in secret? Why wouldn’t it have been on the schedule if they intended to do it? I mean, you don’t just decide, ‘I’m going to privately get the vice president and sneak by Dr. King’s memorial to surprise.’ Surprise who? The monuments?”
Instead, Sharpton said he suspected the White House was simply reacting to media criticism that Trump initially did not have any public events on his schedule to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“I don’t believe [Trump & Pence] honestly intended to do anything for Dr. King’s birthday… Why wouldn’t it have been on the schedule if they intended to do it? You don’t just decide you’re going to… sneak by Dr. King’s memorial.” – @TheRevAl w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/D21tZrghYE
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) January 21, 2019
Sharpton, a civil rights activist and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, also knocked Pence after the vice president quoted MLK during a weekend appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” recalling how King once said in 1963, “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.” Pence was on the program to tout Trump’s southern border wall amid stalled negotiations between the administration and congressional Democrats.
“It was an absolute oxymoron for him to say it if he understood what he was really quoting. I mean, it was the wrong quote for him,” Sharpton said.
