As we previously reported, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson passed away last month.
A recent memorial service was attended by countless famous figures, including multiple former presidents.
And now, Jackson's son — former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. — is lashing out at the ex-commander-in-chiefs who spoke at the funeral.
Over the weekend, Jackson addressed a crowd at the Chicago headquarters of Rainbow Push Coalition, an organization founded by his father.
He began by accusing the former presidents of pretending that they had been on intimate terms with his father.
"Yesterday I listened for several hours of three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson," the younger Jackson said (via Fox News), adding:
"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,"
Jackson also criticized the former presidents for taking veiled jabs at Donald Trump during their speeches.
Shortly after his father passed in February, Jackson took to social media to encourage attendees at his father's memorial events to leave their politics at the door.
"Do not bring your politics out of respect to Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the life that he lived, to these ongoing services," he wrote.
"Come respectful, and come to say thank you. 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."
The former presidents allegedly ignored that request, with Obama noting in his speech that "every day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions."
"We're told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don't even count at all," Obama stated.
At one point, Biden rather strangely remarked that he considers himself "a hell of a lot smarter than most of you" during an anecdote about being mocked for his childhood stutter.
Clinton appears to have kept his comments mostly apolitical, but he recalled speaking with Jackson during his impeachment, and he referred to the late reverend as a close friend, a claim Jesse Jr. seems to be challenging.
None of the former presidents has responded to Jackson's criticism.
Jesse Jackson Jr. Lashes Out at Obama, Biden, Clinton For Bashing Trump at His … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
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