Jesse Jackson Jr. takes swipe at former Democratic presidents over father’s memorial service

Jesse Jackson Jr. took a jab at three former Democratic presidents who delivered remarks at his father’s memorial service — Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joseph R. Biden — saying they did not know the real Jesse Jackson.

“Yesterday I listened for several hours of three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson,” he said on Saturday.

The son of the late civil rights figure said, “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.”

Mr. Jackson, who served as a Democratic representative from Illinois between 1995 and 2012, criticized the political establishment before attendees at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago.

He made his remarks one day after the former presidents gave their speeches at a memorial service celebrating his father. Mr. Obama, though, used the occasion to take his own political potshots at his detractors.

“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,” Mr. Obama said. “Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength.”

Mr. Clinton, who focused less on politics, said he was there “more as a friend than a former president. [Jackson] was my friend when I needed him.”

Mr. Biden told mourners jokingly at the memorial service that he is “a hell of a lot smarter than most of you.” He recalled how he was mocked as a child for his stutter and how speech impediments are often mistaken for a lack of intelligence.

“If I told you I had a cleft palate or clubfoot, none of you would have laughed,” Mr. Biden said. “But it’s OK to laugh at stuttering. … It’s the one place where people think you’re stupid.”

Jackson, who died at age 84 last month, rose to distinction as a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement.