As Al Sharpton’s National Action Network held their conference in New York this week, an array of 2020 Democratic hopefuls showed up to address the audience. Among them was Bernie Sanders, who may or may not be an actual member of the Democratic Party, depending on what day of the week you ask him. He clearly knew what sort of red meat the audience was craving, and ditched his usual platform points for a while to deliver the sort of attacks on President Trump that draw the biggest applause at such gatherings. (NY Post)

In some of his sharpest language yet attacking President Trump, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders accused the Republican president of being racist and sexist and much more during a speech before Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. “It gives me no pleasure to tell you that we have a president today who is a racist, who is a sexist, who is a homophobe, who is a xenophobe, and who is a religious bigot. I wish I did not have to say that. But that is the damn truth,” the independent senator from Vermont said on Friday… “During Donald Trump’s presidency we have seen a sharp rise in hate crimes and that rise comes as this country continues to be plagued by institutional racism and racial inequality,” Sanders stressed.

There’s not much new or particularly noteworthy in Sanders’ address and it could have been lifted from almost any other candidate speaking at the event. He did join in with the rest of the Democrats in answering the one question that was put to each and every one of them. Would you support reparations for African-Americans? Of course he would. And the rest of the field said the same thing. That was a switch for Sanders, however. He rejected the idea of reparations in 2016 and was still doing so as recently as this winter. I suppose someone must have reminded him how poorly he did with black voters during the last primary.

Speaking of “the rest of the field,” there were enough 2020 hopefuls there to kick off the debates rather than waiting for this summer. NAN is hosting Sanders, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Amy Klobuchar. I mean, the gang’s (almost) all here.

Now for the $64,000 question: Why? Why is the Democratic Party still trapped in this endless, self-destructive relationship with Al Sharpton? Going back to his earliest days and throughout his entire career, Sharpton has been a race-baiter, a hate crime hoaxer, a tax cheat and a fraud. He’s one of the most divisive figures in the country and his pet organization has been weaponized to threaten racism complaints and protests against companies who didn’t donate to NAN. And let’s not forget that he had the audacity to “lease” the rights to his own life story to the organization on his way out the door just so he could drain more cash from it.

In short, Al Sharpton has spent his life trying to help people… provided those people were named Al Sharpton. But for some reason, his convention is basically a required stop if you want to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. I get that all of the candidates want to maximize black voter turnout in their favor, but there are so many other worthy organizations out there actually trying to help black citizens. This entire display is an embarrassment to the Democratic Party and it’s a tradition that should come to an end.