Al Sharpton said Wednesday that the FBI’s findings regarding a NASCAR “noose” that has hung in a garage since October 2019 will not bring closure to the story.
The MSNBC host told “Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist that a week of racial tumult for NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace won’t end with the agency’s assurance that no foul play was at hand regarding a garage pull “fashioned like a noose.”
Reports that a nefarious individual left a “noose” in a Talladega garage used by Mr. Wallace were rendered moot by after the FBI confirmed “authentic video confirmed by NASCAR that the noose found in garage number 4 was in that garage as early as October 2019. … nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week.”
Mr. Sharpton was unimpressed with the agency’s findings and decision not to hunt for a suspect who warrants federal charges.
“Even if they did not know that Bubba Wallace was going to use that stall, why was a noose in the stall?” Mr. Sharpton, the host of MSNBC’s “Politics Nation,” asked. “It’s clear what a noose represents. … Whether or not they knew that sooner or later the one black driver would use that stall, really doesn’t answer why it was in the stall at all. And then, did someone know that it was in the stall when they did belatedly assigned Bubba there? So I don’t think this answers a lot of questions, and clearly from what we just saw, of Bubba Wallace, it does not seem he, who was the victim and possible target in this matter, seems to be satisfied with this. So I do not think that we’ve seen closure in this particular inquiry.”
Mr. Wallace told CNN’s Don Lemon Tuesday evening that a “straight-up noose” was in the garage, no matter what the agency concluded regarding motivations.
“The FBI has stated it was a noose over and over again,” he said. “NASCAR leadership has stated it was a noose. I actually got evidence of what was hanging in my garage, over my car.”
Sharpton not ready to give up on the NASCAR “noose” story: “It’s clear what a noose represents … And then did someone know that it was in the stall when they did belatedly assign Bubba there? … I do not think that we’ve seen closure in this particular inquiry.” pic.twitter.com/xzq5hQIWC5
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 24, 2020
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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