Thread by @SethAMandel

My cover story on Al Sharpton's return to prominence is out today. It explains how we got here--Sharpton is inarguably more influential politically than he's ever been. Also want to make a couple points. First, here's the piece: Return of the Kingmaker washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/return…

Sharpton is where he is thanks to a confluence of factors, but two men more than anyone else stand out: Bill de Blasio and Barack Obama. Obama felt he needed Sharpton to counter Jesse Jackson. De Blasio effectively gave Rev Al the run of City Hall. BUT:

Obama is actually an outlier. Truth is, those who make Sharpton the power broker he is are overwhelmingly white liberals. This is another key point: There is no monolithic "Black America." So how does Sharpton get to speak for African Americans? Well:

Sharpton has always been all about access. He can make trouble for anyone who doesn't pay deference. This is his entire corporate strategy, as I detail in the piece. He uses it in politics too. But that means he has become a proxy for "black voters," *whether they want it or not*

Most NYC mayors and most presidents have been white. But one expert of African American politics I cite in the piece makes an important point: Appealing to Sharpton is also about soothing white liberals, b/c *they* worry about diversity and need signals. Sharpton works for them.

Sharpton is a signal for white liberals because they don't actually know anything about black life. This is what gives Al Sharpton his power: overwhelming whiteness. Ironic, no? It's pretty messed up. Couple more notes I want to make:

We often talk about Sharpton being "unrepentant." Which he is. But what does that mean? Yes, in part it means his refusal to apologize for leading America's first pogrom. But it's not "just" his insistence that he's done nothing wrong. It's more toxic than that.

Sharpton led the Crown Heights pogrom in 1991. He showed up when there *had already been a murder of a Jewish man* by a crowd yelling "there's a Jew! Get the Jew!" To be clear, it didn't "get out of hand." Sharpton saw it strike blood *first*, then jumped in and egged on rioters.

In other words, Sharpton saw the murder of a Jew as his great opportunity, and *wanted to be seen leading such events.* This is enough to make him truly despicable and worth casting out from polite society. But it's not all! A crucial sequel to that:

1995, Sharpton, led the incitement against Freddy's Fashion Mart. But his NAN lieutenant, Morris Powell, said of Freddy: "We are not going to stand idly by and let a Jewish person come in black Harlem and methodically drive black people out of business up and down 125th Street."

The incitement against Freddy was specifically antisemitic, and it came from Sharpton's own organization. Soon after that came the massacre at Freddy's. In 1998, with Freddy's reopened under a new name, Powell was back agitating for action against him because "Freddy's not dead."

That's what we mean by "unrepentant." He didn't apologize for the first anti-Jewish riot. Then he tried it again, and was successful again. Then he tried it again. It's who he is: He kept at the same incitement with the same results after the pogrom. He is, simply, a monster.

So when Democrats suck up to him, it's important to understand the depravity you're seeing. Jason Whitlock got blowback for calling Sharpton a terrorist, but when you go through his history you can at least see where Whitlock was coming from.

And here, we cannot possibly let MSNBC off the hook. They put a proud unrepentant pogromist on TV, helped him rehab his image without even washing the blood off his shirt, and now let him lead presidential coverage of the Dem primaries. It's genuinely sick.

Is it any surprise that after de Blasio empowered Sharpton, antisemitic attacks in NYC went up? No, most of us saw this coming a mile away, because we're not morons and we know history.

So in terms of Dem presidential candidates, de Blasio has A LOT to answer for. But so does Pete Buttigieg. I talk about this in the piece: Buttigieg was failing with black voters, kissed Sharpton's ring right after a deadly synagogue shooting, and rebounded in the polls bigtime.

That set the tone. And while Mayor Pete has built a reputation of an honest, up front guy, he's hiding on what he's done with Sharpton. I must've tried five separate times with different ppl on the campaign to get a comment. Even those on his team who know me ignored them.

That, I think, is the silver lining: @PeteButtigieg has no excuse and no explanation for what he's done, so he's hiding. But let that be a lesson: Mayor Pete thought he could spit on the Jewish community and it would only help him electorally.

I hope everyone reads the piece, and I welcome feedback. washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/return…