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CNN Live Sunday

Al Sharpton to Run for President in 2004

Aired May 20, 2001 - 17:24   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The next presidential campaign gets its first candidate: civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who is telling "TIME" magazine that he is planning to run in 2004. Sharpton, who is a Democrat, says he's throwing his hat in the ring because his party didn't do enough to protect voting rights in Florida.

Mr. Sharpton joins us on the telephone now to talk more about his campaign quest. Thank you for being with us, sir, and explain why, more fully, you want to run for president of the United States.

AL SHARPTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, what I have said is that I think that when we look at the shift to the right in the country, when we look at the fact that we have a president now that in the middle of an energy crisis begins taking care of my, in my judgment, oil barons.

And the Democratic Party, in my judgment, fumbled the ball on the issues of voter rights and voter protection, and we really need to have a real galvanizing and dramatic campaign to really bring to focus the issues, and I said that I'm available to be that candidate. There will be a pro-democracy convention of many activists around the country in June, and I'm going to lay out that strategy.

I think that it is important that we not be on the sidelines of -- in 2004 providing record number of votes and getting minimal volume on the issues and concerns that are dear and near to us.

SAVIDGE: Well, let me ask you this: you have been a lightening rod to many controversial issues in the past. Is that going to be baggage that you bring to your campaign, and how is that going to bring voters together to support you?

SHARPTON: Well, I think that if you look at the campaigns -- I have always been able to go further than any expectations and have gotten votes, huge votes across racial lines. I got 26 percent of the state vote in New York when I ran for the U.S. Senate.

So, I think that clearly if, in fact, I make this race, and it is certainly our intention to have a candidacy -- and the only way I wouldn't is if someone like Maxine Waters or someone else that represents these points of view went forward -- I think clearly we could bring people together who have been together, but have been ignored. The question is, how can the body continue to expect people to be there for them, and they are not there to protect and uphold the interests of those people?

SAVIDGE: Mr. Sharpton, thank you very for joining us on the telephone. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, announcing and telling "TIME" magazine that he will be a candidate for the president of the United States in 2004.

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