Classic (h/t reader Sue). Al Sharpton grilled and fillet by Chris Wallace. I’m looking for the video, but for now enjoy the bigotted hypocrisy of this politcal hack. The transcript:

WALLACE: In this whole controversy, some people have asked questions about you, Reverend Sharpton. I’m going to ask you some of those questions.

You have a history of getting involved in racial conflicts in which whites allegedly victimize blacks. Back in 1987, you pushed very hard, were very public in the case of Tawana Brawley, a black teen who said she was raped by white police officers and a white prosecutor.

A grand jury found it was a hoax, and a jury made you pay one official $87,000 for defamation. Question: We can’t find any record that you ever apologized to any of those white officials the way Don Imus did this week.

SHARPTON: Well, first of all, that was a civil case based on a case that I believed, and I stood by a young lady that came to us.

So I did not get involved without an invitation ‚Äî a case I fought, just like I fought a case with Central Park two years later that a jury convicted young men. They went to jail 13 years. People said…

WALLACE: Yes, but I’m asking you about Tawana Brawley. A grand jury found it was…

SHARPTON: If you would allow me to finish the answer…

WALLACE: If I may, sir — if I may ask the question, a grand jury says it was a hoax. A jury found you guilty of defamation and made you pay one of the white officers $87,000.

Did you ever apologize to any of them for your comments?

SHARPTON: May I answer the question?

WALLACE: If you answer the question about Tawana Brawley, sure.

SHARPTON: I’m answering the question, yes. Just like I have done in other cases where juries find in criminal cases ‚Äî there’s no guilt in a civil case ‚Äî and did not apologize and come to find out we were right.

I believed I was right on Ms. Brawley. We paid the penalty, just as I felt Mr. Imus should pay the penalty. I did not apologize for something that I believed were right.

I believed many Americans disagreed with the jury in O.J. Simpson. Do they have to apologize and say they were racist because they believed O.J. Simpson was guilty and the jury said he was not, or Michael Jackson?

I mean, all of us have the right to disagrees with juries. If people feel that you did it wrongly, they have a right to pursue an action, and you should stay and stand up and pay the penalty of that. I did. And so should others, including, in this case, Mr. Imus.

WALLACE: Well, let me ask you about another case. When those three students charged in the Duke rape case were charged in the case, even after people found holes in the prosecutor’s argument, you continued to side with the accuser.

Here’s what you told Bill O’Reilly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: This D.A. is probably not one that is crazy. He would not have proceeded it he did not feel…

BILL O’REILLY, FOX NEWS HOST: I’m not criticizing him.

SHARPTON: … that he could convict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Reverend Sharpton, now that all of those students have been found innocent by the state attorney general, will you apologize to the Duke students?

SHARPTON: Mr. Wallace, maybe you played the wrong tape. I think what I said in that tape was that the D.A. is apparently not crazy, and this is what the D.A. said.

You said that you were getting ready to play a tape where I said that this case must be pushed despite the holes in it. That’s not what you played. And the reason you didn’t play it is because I never said that.

What I said is that the D.A., we felt, brought the charges because — the charges he felt he had evidence for. If the D.A. misled us, you want me to apologize for what, being misled?

WALLACE: Well, one could argue that, in fact, you ‚Äî a lot of other people were saying let’s see what happens in the court case. You were siding with the prosecutor. You were saying he’s not crazy.

SHARPTON: No, I said that I did not…

WALLACE: What about the presumption of innocence, Reverend Sharpton?

SHARPTON: Wait, woah, woah.

WALLACE: What about the presumption of innocence, Reverend Sharpton?

SHARPTON: Well, first of all, again, what you are trying to do is compare a man who gets on radio that involved no case, no allegation ‚Äî nobody said anything about these students ‚Äî and called them nappy-headed ho’s with cases that people ‚Äî whether it’s O.J., whether it’s Michael Jackson or anything else ‚Äî people have a right to take positions on what they believe in a case.

You cannot take an individual case and compare that to people getting on federally regulated broadcast stations and making, for no reason, no context, no accusation, just blanket statements. You’re trying to compare apples and oranges.

WALLACE: And, Reverend Sharpton, even after the case has been completely disproved, even after the attorney general in North Carolina has said that it was an overreaching, overzealous prosecutor, you’re still not willing to say…

SHARPTON: Oh, absolutely, but…

WALLACE: … “I, Reverend Sharpton, was wrong, I owe an apology to those students?”

SHARPTON: … you didn’t ask that question. You did not ask that question.

WALLACE: Well, I’m asking it to you now, sir.

SHARPTON: I wish you would, rather than assume my answer. Not only would I said today I think clearly the prosecutor misled us, and that what happened to those young men were horrible, I said it on my show Friday. It said it immediately after it happened.

So to act as though I have not said that is not true. You should have asked that. I’ve said that as soon as it came down. I said it on my radio program Friday.

But again, you didn’t ask that. You assumed an answer and put it in my mouth and then asked me to apologize for it.

WALLACE: I don’t think that’s exactly what I did. Actually, what I said was now that the attorney general says they’re all innocent, do you apologize to the students.

SHARPTON: No. You said will I now…

WALLACE: In any case, Reverend Sharpton, let me ask you one…

SHARPTON: … do it, as if I had not done it.

WALLACE: Reverend Sharpton, let me ask you one…

SHARPTON: I did it.

WALLACE: … final question, if I may.

SHARPTON: I will again do it. I did it on Friday.”

More to come when I find that video.