It wasn’t the time or the place…
The son of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson accused several Dem heavyweights of hijacking his father’s memorial to take political shots at President Trump.
Jesse Jackson Jr. said former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton used their remarks during Friday’s ceremony to attack Trump instead of honoring the late activist’s legacy.
“Yesterday, I listened for several hours to three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson,” Jackson Jr. said Saturday during a private memorial service at Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago.
“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 ever sold us out as people.
“And it speaks volumes about who the Rev. Jesse Jackson was.”
Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton got called out by Jesse Jackson Jr. for turning his father’s funeral service into a political rally.
Yikes.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 9, 2026
Jackson, a towering figure in the civil rights movement and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, died last month at age 84 at his Chicago home.
During Friday’s service at Chicago’s House of Hope, Obama delivered remarks warning about what he described as the country’s political direction.
“Each day, 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 said. “Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength. It’s hard to hope in those moments.”
NEW Former President Obama says it's 'hard to hope' in today's political climate during his eulogy at Rev. Jesse Jackson's funeral:
“Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength.”
“We see science and expertise… pic.twitter.com/Z9vFOOaBYR
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 6, 2026
Biden struck a similar tone, claiming the Trump administration does not share “any of the values that we have.”
Former President Joe Biden paid tribute to Reverend Jesse Jackson at his memorial service, saying, “He understood who we were at our best and never let us forget our responsibility—as a party, as a nation, and as individuals.”
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 6, 2026
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 election to Trump, also invoked current politics during her remarks.
“I’m not into saying ‘I told you so,’ but we did see it coming,” Harris said. “But what I did not predict is that we would not have Jesse Jackson with us right now to help us get through this.”
"I predicted a lot about what's happening right now … But what I did not predict is that we would not have Jesse Jackson with us right now to help us get through this."
Former Vice President Kamala Harris honored the legacy of the late Reverend Jesse Jackson at his memorial… pic.twitter.com/NVUMokjs60
— ABC News (@ABC) March 6, 2026
Clinton’s eulogy largely avoided political attacks, instead recalling Jackson as a close friend and longtime ally.
More over at The New York Post:
Jesse Jackson's son blasts Obama, Biden for using father's memorial to take shots at Trump https://t.co/u6zERdVXpI pic.twitter.com/FgLiTCEkXF
— New York Post (@nypost) March 9, 2026
Thank you for visiting