On Monday's PoliticsNation show on MSNBC, as he mocked Republicans for fearing that Democrats use dead voters to engage in voter fraud, host Al Sharpton hyped a USA Today article [1] about people bequeathing money to political campaigns after death.
Sharpton recounted the case of a donor who died soon after mailing a contribution to a super PAC benefitting Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and tried to spin the happening into a scandal so he could charge Republicans with "hypocrisy."
After noting that a "computer glitch" had incorrectly recorded the date of the contribution so that its arrival date appeared to be months after the donor's death, Sharpton searched for a scandal: "But where is all the right-wing outrage over all the dead money? Did they think we'd let their hypocrisy stay in the crypt? If so, they were dead wrong. Nice try, ghouls, but we got you."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, August 5, PoliticsNation on MSNBC:
AL SHARPTON: Republicans were terrified leading up to the last election. No, not because Mitt Romney was their candidate, though that was pretty scary. No, the GOP was spooking itself up over this.
(CLIP OF ZOMBIES WALKING)
SHARPTON: That's right, zombies, the walking dead. And the GOP was sure that they'd flock to the polls to vote for President Obama. Just remember what Fox News said.
LOU DOBBS, FBN: Come November, these two million dead people could be considered a critical voting bloc.
ATTORNEY GENERAL ALAN WILSON (R-SC), APPEARING ON FNC: We found out that there were over 900 people who died and then subsequently voted.
STEVE DOOCY, FNC: A disturbing new report revealing that tens of thousands of dead people registered to vote right here in the state we're sitting in, North Carolina.
GOVERNOR NIKKI HALEY (R-SC): Without photo ID, I mean, let's be clear. I don't want dead people voting in the state of South Carolina.
RICHARD ARMEY, FORMER HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: The Democrat machinery is very good at getting the dead vote out.
SHARPTON: Actually, Democrats were good at getting the vote out in 2012, just not the dead vote. There was no zombie voter fraud, just another breathless and made up GOP scandal.
But it turns out, while the dead weren't voting, they apparently were donating. A group supporting Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is raking in the big bucks. And on June 3rd, $100,000 came from GOP mega donor Bob Perry. That was nearly two months after Mr. Perry's deaths, death. Oops.
Officials at the super PAC say it was all a computer mistake, and that the money came in the day before Perry died. But where is all the right-wing outrage over all the dead money? Did they think we'd let their hypocrisy stay in the crypt? If so, they were dead wrong. Nice try, ghouls, but we got you.
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center