Fox News host Geraldo Rivera on Friday asserted that prosecutors in Florida had been pressured by MSNBC host Al Sharpton and “race politics” to bring a weak case against former neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

As the the defense was preparing to present its closing arguments, Rivera appeared on Fox & Friends to predict that Zimmerman would be acquitted.

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“This was a case brought because of political pressure — race politics in this country,” the Fox News host opined. “I hate to say it. I hold the Rev. Al Sharpton in much higher regard than many of my colleagues… But I strongly believe that the Rev. Al is the catalyst behind murder two charge six weeks after the incident.”

“I believe the original prosecutor got it right,” he continued. “I think it is a self-defense situation, a classic self defense when you strip it of all of the trappings.”

Rivera said that the all-female jury would imagine themselves “on that rainy night in that housing complex that has just been burglarized by three or four different groups of black youngsters from the adjacent community.”

“So, it’s a dark night. A 6-foot-2-inch, hoodie-wearing stranger is in the immediate housing complex. How would the ladies of the jury have that have reacted? I submit that if they were armed, that they would have shot and killed Trayvon Martin a lot sooner than George Zimmerman did. This is self defense.”

Watch this video from Fox News’ Fox & Friends, broadcast July 12, 2013.

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(h/t: Mediaite)