Fox News contributor Ralph Peters during a discussion on President Obama’s handling of foreign leaders managed somehow to compare Russian President Vladimir Putin to MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, arguing that they both peddle in “victimhood.”
“Putin is going to be the head of state in Russia long after Obama has been consigned to the ash heap of history,” Peters said Tuesday morning. “Putin is suffering a setback, but he’s not a Washington milquetoast who just quits. He’s in this for the long-term.”
“If you follow the Russian media, he has created an alternative reality for the Russian people,” the Fox contributor added. “He is sort of Al Sharpton with nukes, creating this cult of victimhood, victimhood, victimhood for the Russian people.”
Sharpton, who is reportedly Obama’s “go-to man on race” issues, has come under fire in recent weeks from conservative outlets for allegedly inspiring widespread unrest, including the violent protests in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City.
“For [Obama] to embrace Sharpton,” the Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson said this month, “who is just an open bigot and a criminal and a tax cheat, who’s been whipping up race hatred in New York for all these decades. For the president of the United States to embrace this guy as a personal friend, an adviser, to show up at the [National Action Network] meetings, to have him in the White House again, and again, and again, and again, to endorse his message — boy, no wonder you’ve got craziness going on in the streets.”
“I can’t even believe the president of the United States is endorsing Sharpton. What world is this?” he asked.
Fox News’ Brit Hume echoed similar thoughts, saying earlier on Twitter: “Two words rebut the argument that Obama and [NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio] have been even-handed in their approach to race and police: Al Sharpton.”
