In June, in anticipation of the celebration of America's 250th anniversary, the Department of the Interior unveiled an exhibit at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C., which is named in honor of MLK Jr., featuring a statue of Caesar Rodney, a Founding Father best known for his overnight ride from Delaware to Philadelphia in July 1776, to help secure the vote for independence, along with 12 bronze Revolutionary War soldiers.
During the George Floyd riots of 2020, a statue of Rodney in Wilmington, Delaware was removed, due to the fact that he was a slave owner, so Reverend Al Sharpton decided to pursue all of this Sunday on MS NOW's Politics Nation, resulting in severe, unchecked Trump bashing.
Sharpton left no doubt where he stands on the display, as he introduced Woody Holton, professor of history at University of South Carolina, calling it, "A slavery statue, or slave owner statue." And it wouldn't take long to see why Holton was chosen as Sharpton's guest.
HOLTON: What's not so cool about Caesar Rodney is also true about Washington and Jefferson, and that is that he owned hundreds of his fellow human beings.... And so he is a lot like George Washington in that respect, in that he accomplished something useful for the white Americans who were declaring Independence. On the other hand he did it on the backs of his fellow humans who were from Africa.
Holton wasn't even warmed up yet, as Sharpton tossed him the next softball.
SHARPTON: It's surrounded by statues of several black soldiers who fought against British rule during the American Revolution.... What kind of narrative do you think the administration is trying to convey here?
It was now Trump bashing time.
HOLTON: It's a more complex message than we usually get from the President, which the main message is, frankly, an F-U to Martin Luther King and to Washington, DC, which is a majority minority city that wants to be a majority minority state.
Holton then made a ridiculous analogy.
HOLTON: It's equivalent to when Trump declared Family Month, which happened to be what had been Pride Month. And for most the rest of us is still Pride Month. It was a little, give the finger to gay people. Now we're giving the finger to African Americans, to the city as well as to Dr. King.
Of course President Trump never declared June a Family Month. Representative Mary Miller (R-Ill.) introduced a resolution in Congress to declare June as Family Month in 2025, and several states have taken action on their own. Trump, as was the case throughout his first term, has not issued a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month.
Sharpton expanded the conversation, but the results were the same.
SHARPTON: Whether it's Freedom Plaza or the White House Ballroom or the Kennedy Center, Trump seems obsessed in his second term with remaking so much of our nation's cultural real estate over in his image, or to reflect his idealized view of our history. What do you think is behind it, professor?
HOLTON: You say idealized, I say an ugly view of our history because he's all about racial confrontation, getting blacks and whites pitted against each other.
And then, it was back to the statue and the display, with six white soldiers and six black soldiers. Apparently, the blacks represents sidekicks.
HOLTON: They are there around the Caesar Rodney statue -- as I did say, cover -- they're kind of playing the Danny Glover role -- they're there to cover -- black partner, so that the white hero can go do his thing. And so it would have been too brazen if Trump had only put the Caesar Rodney statue up there.
These six black heroes of the Revolutionary War, along with six white heroes. But they're like the Secret Service.... Your job as a Secret Service agent is not to keep yourself alive.... It's to keep the President alive. And that's what these 12 guys are doing, especially the six black ones, is they're put there for cover. So it's really, to me, it's a profaning of the memory of these of these black heroes.
The despicable segment continued with Sharpton asking his guest to speculate on what might happen to the display and other Trump projects if the Democrats take the White House in 2028.
Not a word of objection from the good Reverend Sharpton, as Trump was accused of giving an "F-U to MLK", and giving the finger to gay people, and African Americans. That tells you all you need to know.
