Jesse Jackson: Republican Rhetoric Against Obama Could Result in Violence Against Him

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BASHIR:
“I've seen that remarkable photograph of you on the day Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered, was shot. Are you saying sir, and I'm sorry to press you on this, but are you saying that Barack Obama’s very safety is being imperilled by the abusive rhetoric that is being directed at him as the President of this country?”

JACKSON:

"Absolutely…ignorance and hatred leads to violence. And that's why--when you go from--when the governor puts her finger in his face, she was making a crackling political statement and she gained some points from it, but they have the same contempt for the poor. Even the idea about the thing statement he made about the poor today and they're all right. You know, 53 million Americans are food insecure. 50 million are in poverty. 44 million on food stamps and 26 million looking for a job. Why would those be Christian demonize the poor? Jesus born in an ethnic minority in poverty under a death warrant in a homeless shelter and then became an immigrant and killed ultimately by the government, one who led the uprising is of the poor? We should lift our policies. The good thing is about this is in the south, there's a new south here. You couldn't have had Boeing and Toyota, thse companies behind the cotton had we not been successful in the civil rights movement. You couldn't have had the magic. We made a new south. The new south is led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He's that father of the new south. When LSU plays Alabama, that big game would have been illegal. There are those trying to tear down the bridge. We must keep building bridges. One of the most profound things I saw the president do, when she put her finger in his face, could he have grabbed her finger. He absolved the pain and exposes her for that flaw. We must keep going forward by a kind of nonviolent discipined hope. Let us put your fingers on the ballot box, not in anybody's face. No one deserves that."