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CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Rev. Al Sharpton (pictured) delivered somewhat of a sermon Sunday at the historic Olivet Institutional Baptist Church on Cleveland's largely Black east side to a packed house and mentioned the pending impeachment inquiry against President Trump and a host of other issues impacting the Black community as the 2020 election nears. His remarks on Trump, a television personality and real estate mogul turned president, were limited in the church setting, though he was articulate, and, as usual, on point, a dynamic speaker and brilliant orator in his own right. Led by the Rev. Dr. Jawanza Colvin as its senior pastor, Olivet is likely the city's most prominent Black church. “Now we are on the brink of an impeachment inquiry, and in the middle of that, what’s going to happen with health care?,” said Sharpton, a WERE AM radio commentator, and former MSNBC talk show host who leads the New York-based National Action Network, which held its Ohio conference in Cleveland this weekend, an event led by Nan Greater Cleveland chapter president Marcia McCoy. and the Rev. Dr. E. Theophilus Caviness, senior pastor at the Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland who marched with the late renowned Civil Rights leader the REv. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “What’s going to happen on criminal justice? What’s going to happen with education? Part of our fight is to make sure the government does its job, and no one is above the law, but don’t ignore us.” The baptist preacher told those in attendance that in spite of the political climate in Washington D.C. and problems such as poverty, racism, unemployment, an unjust criminal justice system nationwide that targets the Black community, and a barrage of issuing impacting the Black community, Blacks must stay strong and vibrant, and they must vote at the ballot box. He said Civil Rights and voting rights are under constant attack. He spoke on the vestiges of slavery and told the audience that Blacks must fight to win on public policy issues important to the Black community. "You fight to win," said Sharpton, 64. Once associates, Sharpton and President Trump are now at odds, Trump tweeting earlier this year that the well-known Civil Rights leader and former presidential candidate is a troublemaker and conman who hates White people and cops. Flanked by former RNC chair and prior Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele, who is Black, and a group of Civil Rights activists who stood with him at the press conference on July 29 in Baltimore, Sharpton responded and deemed Trump, president since 2017 who is seeking reelection in 2020, a "racism peddler." Sharpton said then that he will continue to "make trouble for bigots" like Trump. He said that if Trump truly believed him to be a conman he would recommend he be appointed to his cabinet, a sarcastic reference to a string of indictments since Trump took office, salver Trump affiliates, including his former attorney, Michel Cohen, and his former campaign chairman, Paul Maniforth, both serving prison terms on fraud and fraud-related convictions. Trump's opponents, including Sharpton, Democratic presidential candidates, Black leaders and congressional Democrats, say he is preaching to his base with his potent racial rhetoric. His supporters say he is just being himself and using the divisive issue of race as a campaign tragedy as Blacks overwhelmingly vote Democratic, and racism is still alive and well in American, in politics, and across the continuum. Also during that press conference, Sharpton again defended Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md, calling Trump's tweets that Cummings is "racist,"and a "brutal bully" bigoted and racist, the president under attack for saying Baltimore is no place where anybody would want to live, and for vilifying Cummins, who is Black and a senior congressman whose seventh congressional district includes the 63 percent Black city of Baltimore. "He attacks everybody," said Sharpton of Trump, who is White and initiated his attacks on Sharpton after Sharpton came to the aid of Rep Cummins. "I know Donald Trump." Sharpton said that the president is not mature enough to take constructive criticism. "He's like a child, somebody says something, he reacts," the longtime community activist leader said of the president. "He's thin-skinned and not really matured that well, but he has a particular venom for Blacks and people of color." Steele, who served as chair of the RNC from 2009-2011 and was Maryland's lieutenant governor from 2003-2007, spoke at the press conference too, and lambasted Trump for his attacks on the city of Baltimore, the president now catching heat over the controversy from Blacks across partisan lines. The president's attacks on Cummings and Sharpton come after he picked a fight with four freshman congresswomen, all of them women of color. Specifically, he created a fury by demanding that U.S. Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan go home to the countries they came from, all but Omar, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen who came to America with her U.S. born parents as a child refugee, born in the U.S. A week later he intensified his attacks on the federal lawmakers, saying in a tweet that the four members of the congressional quartet now dubbed 'the quad' are "incapable of loving our country.” Democratic members of congress, 2020 presidential candidates and world leaders have also lashed out at the president for his flagrant attacks on the four congresswomen of color, longtime Congressman John Lewis of Georgia calling Trump racist and an outright embarrassment to the American people. Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS. |
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