Sharpton: ‘Where Does Rand Paul Get Off Talking About Civil Rights?’

Al Sharpton was rather flabbergasted to hear Rand Paul saying that the “first African-American president” should be more concerned about NSA spying because of the history of civil rights leaders being spied on. Sharpton said Paul has “no credibility” to talk about race issues at all because of his past comments on the Civil Rights Act.

Sharpton scolded Paul for thinking Obama doesn’t already know “full well the history’ of men like Martin Luther King, Jr. being spied on. Sharpton called this a “cynical use of race” on the right, marking a Republican slamming President Obama for not talking enough about race, as opposed to other Republicans criticizing the president for talking about race too much.

But Sharpton didn’t think Paul, who rather famously got put on the spot by Rachel Maddow about whether he would have supported the Civil Rights Act, had a leg to stand on. He asked, “Where does Rand Paul get off talking about race and civil rights at all?” (Well, technically, he said Ron Paul, but their names do both start with an R, so… yeah, I got nothing.)

Watch the video below, via MSNBC:

[photo via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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