Carlson: Sharpton and Jackson are "hustlers and pimps."

Carlson: Sharpton and Jackson are "Hustlers and Pimps"

Carlson: Sharpton and Jackson are "Hustlers and Pimps"

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The Slatest
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July 14 2013 1:14 PM

Tucker Carlson: Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are "Hustlers and Pimps"

It was quite the morning for Fox News Sunday. Ann Coulter called George Zimmerman a “sacrificial lamb for this media narrative about America as being run by the Klan,” Geraldo Rivera said that if “you dress like a thug, people are going to treat you like a thug,” and Tucker Carlson gave viewers his nuanced opinion on why he doesn’t believe several key civil rights leaders should be called that.

“I don’t know how I feel about George Zimmerman,” Carlson said (watch video here). “But I am positive that people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do not deserve to be called civil rights leaders. They are not. They are hustlers and pimps who make a living off inflaming racial tensions. They know nothing about this. They’re not residents of Florida. They don’t represent anybody, they’re not elected to anything, they don’t have constituencies. The only reason they’re allowed to do this is because we in the press enable them by calling them civil rights leaders. Why do we do that?”

Daniel Politi has been contributing to Slate since 2004 and wrote the Today’s Papers column from 2006 to 2009. Follow him on Twitter.