Rev. Sharpton Rips Trump for ‘Despicable’ Segregationist Messaging While ‘We’re Mourning John Lewis’

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Rev. Al Sharpton ripped President Donald Trump over his focus on crippling fair housing rules, calling it out as racist and slamming Trump for pushing these messages while the nation mourns the death of civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis.

On Thursday’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski read tweets and played a clip of Trump’s latest escalation in his campaign to stoke fear among white suburban voters — an announcement that he’s rolling back Obama-era fair housing rules.

“This is George Wallace 1968, this is George Wallace 1972,” host Joe Scarborough said, adding that “I don’t think Wallace was ever this clumsy and dumb in his blatant outreach on segregation. This is just pure segregation and the president’s very proud of it.”

“We’ve gone from dog whistling to dog barking now, and hoping that if he barks at the dog, the dog will bark back,” Rev. Al said, and reminded viewers of the housing discrimination lawsuit from the 1970s that was filed against Trump and his father Fred Trump.

“He has made a business and political career out of ‘they are going to ruin your neighborhood. I will keep them out of your neighborhood. I will protect you from the blacks.’ And that’s what he’s going to hear,” Sharpton said. “In a blatant way with no cover, saying they will ruin your neighborhood. It’s all of that that comes with it, they’re robbers, they’re thieves, they will rape your daughters, that’s what he’s messaging here.”

“And what is even more offensive, because those of us in the civil rights community that have known him are not surprised by it, but what is so blatantly despicable, Joe, is he does it on the period of time we’re mourning John Lewis, who will be funeralized today,” he said.

“Not only did he not do anything to say in any serious manner how great John Lewis was, he’s going to use this, that we have three presidents on their way to John Lewis’s funeral, to blatantly play the race card and appeal to what he hopes are the white fears that are still there. This is about as low as you can go,” Sharpton concluded.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.