Jesse Jackson Jr slams '3 US presidents' who used his father's funeral for their own political messaging

Jesse Jackson Jr. criticized multiple Democrat politicians for using the public memorial service for his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, to make political remarks that he said did not reflect the civil rights leader’s lifelong independence from both parties. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden spoke. Former Vice President Kamala Harris also shared a few words. Most of them took the time to be critical of President Donald Trump in their speeches.

According to the New York Post, speaking at a private family service Saturday at Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago, Jackson Jr said, “Yesterday, I listened for several hours to three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson,” and argued that his father’s public life was defined not by loyalty to Democrats or Republicans, but by what he called a “consistent, prophetic voice” on behalf of poor and marginalized people.

“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," Jackson Jr added.

The private memorial followed Friday’s large public service at Chicago’s House of Hope, which drew thousands of mourners and a who’s who of prominent Democrats. During the service, Obama claimed there was a “new assault on our democratic institutions.”

“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.

Biden said the Trump administration does not share “any of the values that we have.” Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who President Donald Trump defeated in the 2024 election, said, “I’m not into saying I told you so, but we did see it coming. 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 President Bill Clinton also spoke, and talked about his political career while eulogizing Jackson.

Jackson died last month at age 84 at his Chicago home after a long battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurodegenerative disorder that had impaired his mobility and speech. He had been hospitalized late last year before returning home. Born Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson rose to national prominence in the 1960s as an aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH, later expanded into the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which advocated for civil rights.

Jackson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, but his 1984 presidential campaign was damaged by anti-Jewish remarks, including his use of the term “Hymietown” to refer to New York City, and his association with antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.