Democratic presidential hopeful Rev. Al Sharpton said Sunday that the Democratic Party had swerved too far to the right in recent years, before defending recent comments by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan suggesting that President Bush should be put on trial for war crimes.
"In the last decade, basically led by the Democratic Leadership Council, the party has moved, in my judgment, too far away from the basic principles that a lot of its constituency had historically depended on it for," Sharpton told NBC's "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert.
When asked whether he hoped to move the Democratic Party away from the centrist politics of the DLC, Sharpton told Russert, "No, you said center. I said right, nor did I say that I'm trying to move it to the left. I would argue that I would try to move it to the center. I think that where I am many Americans are and, I would argue, most Democrats are."
But despite his claim to centrism, Sharpton struggled when confronted with a recent statement by Louis Farrakhan, where the NOI leader suggested that Saddam Hussein was no worse than President Bush, his father and ex-President Clinton.
"All of them do things in the name of their government that if the truth were made known, there would be a Nuremberg trial for American presidents," the NOI leader told a California gathering in February.
After first suggesting Farrakhan's comments may have been taken out of context, Sharpton told Russert, "I think that there ought to be an accountability for all American presidents. And whether that is in the form of a Nuremberg trial is certainly a more technical legal issue. I think we must be accountable; we must be accountable to the American public."
Sharpton did say, however, that he disagreed with Farrakhan that the three most recent presidents were as bad as Hussein, telling Russert that he personally "would not make that judgment."
Russert decided to invite the firebrand White House hopeful for his first-ever appearance on "Meet the Press" after a Zogby poll last week showed Sharpton beating or tying most other Democrats in the race.
newsmax.com
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