A memorial service held Saturday for late civil rights leader Jesse Jackson attracted a who’s who of Democrat politicians. Former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton were on hand, as was former Vice President Kamala Harris.
All four spoke during the service and, with the exception of Clinton, used at least part of their time to take not so subtle digs at the current administration. As it turned out, the potshots did not sit well with at least one member of Jackson’s family.
In remarks after the funeral, Jesse Jackson Jr. admonished the ‘tributes’ given by the politicians at his father’s memorial and accused the Dems of not really knowing the man they eulogized.
The Politicking
During the Saturday service, Harris wasted no time trying to pat herself on the back for allegedly having “predicted” what was coming under a second Trump administration. “And to the entire Jackson family, on behalf of Doug and my family, we, we pray with you, as we did a couple weeks ago in your home and, and we thank you. I thank you,” the failed Democratic presidential candidate said before launching into her attack.
“You know, so let me just say I predicted a lot about what’s happening right now,” she said snuggly as the crowd laughed. “I’m not into saying I told you so, but we did see it coming.”
Later in her 2028 stump speech – ahem, tribute – the former VP brought back some of her favorite profundities, telling those gathered that Jackson had the ability “to see what can be unburdened by what has been.”
Not to be outdone, Harris’ one-time boss, former President Biden, took a swipe at his predecessor. “We’re in a tough spot, folks,” the frail Biden said. “We got an administration that doesn’t share any of the values that we have. I don’t think I’m exaggerating a little bit.”
The 83 year old also appeared to insult the intelligence of the predominantly black audience in an unscripted moment. “If I told you all earlier, when I was a kid, I had a cleft palate or club foot, none of you would have laughed. But it’s okay to laugh at a stutter,” he scolded. “I’m not being critical of you, but think about it. It’s the one place where people think you’re stupid. Oh, really? I’m a hell of a lot smarter than most of you.”
And then there was Biden’s ex-boss, former President Obama, who resurrected the halting oratory style he rode all the way to the White House to take shots at the man currently occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law… Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength,” Obama preached. “It may be tempting for some to compromise with power and grab what you can, or even for good people to maybe just put your head down and wait for the storm to pass… But this man, Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path.”
The Response
But the Jackson family was not amused by the blatant politicization of the memorial service. The reverend’s son let that be known on Sunday, lamenting he listened “for several hours of three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson.”
The younger Jackson said his father, who made two failed bids for the White House in 1984 and 1988, “maintained a tense relationship with the political order” out of necessity, “not because the presidents were white or black.”
“The demands of our message, the demands of speaking for the least of these, those who were disinherited, the damned, the dispossessed, the disrespected, demanded not Democratic or Republican solutions,” Jackson Jr. explained, “but demanded a consistent, prophetic voice that at no point in time ever sold us out as a people. And it speaks volumes about who the Reverend Jesse Jackson was.”
A Lack of Decorum
On Monday’s edition of The Megyn Kelly Show, Megyn called Jackson Jr.’s rebuke “pretty bold,” while her guest, Stu Burguiere, wondered why Obama and co. were invited to speak at all. “Why are they even speaking,” he asked. “I guess there is a weird thing that we do as human beings… as we remember someone’s life we try to make ourselves important by highlighting the people that we knew around them… He knew all these presidents and they’ll speak nicely of him, so that will, I guess, improve his standing?”
Megyn said she met the elder Jackson many times during her tenure at Fox News and never found him to be particularly political. “I had very positive experiences with Jesse Jackson during my years at Fox. He was not one of those crazy, crazy leftist, race essentialism guys,” she noted. “He had the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and he made a lot of difference in the lives of many people… but he wasn’t… Al Sharpton territory. He certainly wasn’t an Ibram X. Kendi-type. And he was very open minded to talking to Republicans about the issues that were important to him. That was my own take on it.”
That is why she found the antics of Obama, Biden, and Harris “so disrespectful.” Burguiere agreed. “Can we at least agree that, when you’re at a funeral, it’s not about you; it’s about the person who died,” he pleaded.
“It is supposed to be a celebration of their lives… a remembrance of their lives, it’s not supposed to be something where you come out and talk about your stutter. That is just making their life about you,” he added. “Just be humble… and maybe talk about the things you admired about them, solely.”
With that, Burguiere offered this sage advice: “And you might say, ‘Well, wait a minute, where’s the time where I get to talk about my cleft palate potential back in the day?’ This isn’t it. There’s just not an opening for it.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Burguiere by tuning in to episode 1,268 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.