Jesse Jackson Jr. Bashes Biden, Obama, Clinton For Making Politically Fueled Speeches, Claims They ‘Didn’t Truly Know His Father’

On social media, users shared indifferent feelings about Jackson Jr.’s stance, with one calling the remarks “tasteless and unnecessary.”

As civil rights and former U.S. leaders gathered to pay tribute to civil rights icon Jesse Jackson, his son made bold claims: after hearing several speeches, he realized there was one thing in common: they didn’t really know his father.

Jesse Jackson Jr. slammed former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden during the March 7 memorial service, stating that his father’s life was about more than politics, as he felt the leaders made the speeches political. “Yesterday I listened for several hours to three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson,” Jackson Jr. said.

“He maintained a tense relationship with the political order, not because the presidents were White or Black, but the demands of our message, the demands of speaking for the least of these — those who are disinherited, the damned, the dispossessed, the disrespected — demanded not Democratic or Republican solutions, but demanded a consistent, prophetic voice that at no point in time sold us out as a people.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom)

After his father’s Feb. 17 death sent sad shockwaves around the world, the grieving son held a press conference requesting politics be kept out of the services, and asked for the focus to be on Jackson’s legacy.

“Do not bring your politics out of respect to Rev. Jesse Jackson and the life that he lived, to these ongoing services. Come respectful, and come to say thank you,” he said following the leader’s death, according to Fox News.

“But these ongoing services are welcome to ALL—Democrat, Republican, liberal, and conservative. Right-wing, left-wing. Because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American.”

That didn’t seem to happen as Obama took digs at President Donald Trump during his time at the podium, saying “every day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions.”

Despite Jr.’s claims that leaders didn’t know him well, Clinton referred to Jackson as a “friend” and reminisced on a conversation that took place during his dark impeachment days.

Other leaders in attendance who gave speeches included former Vice President Kamala Harris, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, but it seems the service put the spotlight on the president’s presence from the very start.

“Put your hands together for the three presidents: President Bill Clinton, President Joe Biden, and the Southside’s own, President Barack Obama,” the speaker announced as they entered the memorial service.

On social media, users shared indifferent feelings about Jackson Jr.’s stance, one even questioning why they were invited to speak in the first place. “Why did they invite them as speakers at his funeral if he didn’t know them?” @__ex0tica wrote on IG.

Others called the remarks “tasteless and unnecessary.” And some pushed Biden and Clinton aside to stand up for Obama. “Son or not, that was tacky, and the mere fact Obama showed up makes it clear he’s a man of integrity and the bigger man,” @diancaglamqueen_ said.