MSNBC host Al Sharpton sparked backlash after his non-profit allegedly received $500,000 from Kamala Harris’ campaign shortly before he interviewed her last month.
Sharpton’s sit down with the vice president drew scrutiny at the time for his softball questioning, with the conservative Washington Free Beacon now claiming it came after he received the huge sum from her campaign.
Harris’ campaign allegedly gave two $250,000 payments to Sharpton’s National Action Network on September 5 and October 1, according to campaign finance records reported by the outlet.
And on October 20, Sharpton’s went on to praise Harris’ ‘extraordinary historic campaign’ in a gushing interview, and branded Donald Trump ‘hostile and erratic.’
As MSNBC has remained silent amid reports of the payments, critics condemned the scandal and argued the cash led to clear favoritism on Sharpton’s part.
Billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump supporter Bill Ackman led the charge, telling Megyn Kelly on her show this week the payments were an attempt ‘to manipulate the audience.’
Another questioned on X: ‘Aren’t political campaigns supposed to GET donations?’
The payments to Sharpton’s organization came as part of a $5.4 million fund the Harris campaign dished out to black and Hispanic advocacy groups, ostensibly to help bolster her candidacy among minority voters.
However, the move spectacularly failed as Harris struggled among key demographics, including losing seven percent of Hispanic voters and eight percent of Black voters compared to Joe Biden’s 2020 totals.
After the payments to Sharpton came to light, the scandal led to claims of favoritism and a clear lack of impartiality on Sharpton’s part, which began even before his interview with Harris.
On October 3, two days after her campaign’s second payment, Sharpton shared a clip on his MSNBC show of Harris wishing him a happy birthday, where she referred to him by his nickname ‘Rev’.
‘You have been over all of your years such an extraordinary leader. You have been a voice of truth, a voice of conscience,’ the vice president told him.
Two weeks later, Sharpton’s interview with Harris followed the same positive theme, with the Washington Free Beacon observing his ‘questions lined up closely with messages that Harris sought to highlight on the campaign trail.’
This included Sharpton invoking Shirley Chisolm, the first Black woman elected to congress, in reference to Harris’ ‘historic’ candidacy.
Sharpton also drew criticism in the interview as he questioned whether any men not supporting Harris were driven by ‘misogyny.’
MSNBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the payments.
Former Congressman John Linder led the charge in condemning the payments to Sharpton’s non-profit, branding his interview with Harris a ‘campaign commercial.’
‘That requires a disclaimer that it was approved and paid for by the Harris campaign,’ he wrote.
‘Let’s see how the FEX deals with all of the celebrities who were paid for their endorsements.’
Another X user argued that it was Harris’ celebrity endorsements – which also included alleged payments to stars such as Oprah and Lizzo – ‘is one of the reasons they lost.’
‘More people started to see through the nonsense,’ they said.
‘Apparently the Harris groundswell of ‘energetic’ support was manufactured by lots of cold cash.’
It comes as questions have been raised over how the Harris campaign blew through over $1 billion in the few months of her doomed candidacy, leaving it in $20 million in debt.
This included paying a six-figure sum to create a set for Harris’ ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast interview, and $1 million to Oprah’s production company.