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CNN Live At Daybreak
Al Sharpton Released from Prison Today
Aired August 17, 2001 - 08:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Supporters waiting outside Metropolitan Detention Center, the federal prison in Brooklyn, where Reverend Al Sharpton has served 86 days behind bars for trespassing on the firing range at Vieques in Puerto Rico. He was protesting the Navy bombing exercises on that island along with some other notables, members of the Kennedy family.
Al Sharpton -- is it a publicity stunt? Well, you know you know this man for many of the things that he's done in the past to speak out and now it looks like he might be talking about running for president. So we're going to go to Michael Tomasky of "New York Magazine." He is in the Big Apple this morning.
Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL TOMASKY, "NEW YORK MAGAZINE": Good morning.
LIN: All right. So we understand that Al Sharpton was trying to send a strong message by his stay in federal prison. He went on a fast, and I understand he's a little skinnier these days.
TOMASKY: Excuse me. He's lost 30 pounds, which is one of the best things that's happened to him while he's been in here. But I think the best thing is that this has just been a P.R. bonanza for him because, you know, it's virtually made him a martyr, at least to some people, to some Black New Yorkers and some Latino New Yorkers. He couldn't have purchased this kind of publicity with the best public relations agents in the city.
LIN: And later today, he's supposedly going to be announcing an exploratory committee to look into running for president in 2004. I mean is Reverend Al Sharpton a national figure? Is he a viable candidate?
TOMASKY: Well, I think the fact that CNN has a camera here tells us something about his national celebrity. I think he has that. Whether he's a viable candidate or not, I don't know. And whether he really will actually run or not, I don't know.
LIN: But, Michael,...
TOMASKY: Al has a habit - go ahead.
LIN: Go ahead. Michael, you once wrote, though, that the farther away they go, the better New York politicians seem to look. Maybe this is a stunt that might work with New York voters. Who is his constituency?
TOMASKY: Well, his constituency is obviously based in the black community. There's a lot of debate about how large his constituency actually is. He's run for public office twice. Both times he got around 130,000 votes. In polls, Black New Yorkers tend to be pretty split on, you know, whether they consider him one of their great leaders or not. So his constituency is actually not that large. There are other African-American elected officials here in New York certainly who I think have bigger followings and are more generally respected. But Al does a pretty good job and a pretty effective job of milking it for all it's worth.
LIN: Does he think he's going to win?
TOMASKY: Win what, the presidency of the United States?
LIN: Win the presidency. Yes, I mean why would he run if he didn't think he was going to win?
TOMASKY: I wouldn't bet on that. I don't think he's running to win. I think he's running to make a point and to raise some issues and to raise his profile, certainly, and that's always toward the top of Al Sharpton's agenda. And I think he feels if he can get a few million votes, he can help push the Democratic Party towards his position on some issues he cares about like police brutality and so on and so forth. But I'm not persuaded yet that this candidacy is 100 percent real.
LIN: So what you're saying is that this is really all about Al Sharpton. It sounds like you're really talking about his ego rather than his altruism.
TOMASKY: Well, there are two Al - you know, I'm not saying it's all about his ego. There's an Al Sharpton who has a, you know -- who's committed to these causes that he agitates for. I don't have any doubt about that. But then there's an Al Sharpton who's a real savvy and intelligent inside political game player who knows how to maximize his power in the New York political world and he's done it well and now he's trying to do that same thing on a national stage. So these two Al Sharptons exist side by side and you never know which one you're going to see in an event. I think sometimes he doesn't even know.
LIN: Well, we'll find out. You're there to cover it and so are we.
Michael Tomasky, "New York Magazine."
TOMASKY: Thanks.
LIN: Political columnist there.
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