Rangel challenges a Sharpton argument
Azi Paybarah
In an interview on NY1 last night, Rep. Charlie Rangel refuted the idea that he promised not to run for re-election this year, and distinguished himself from Adam Clayton Powell, the longtime congressman who Rangel ousted in a primary in 1970.
“I can tell you that nobody told you that and if they did, they were telling a damn lie,” the 83-year-old Harlem Democrat said of the claim that he told supporters in 2012 that he wouldn't run again. “It wasn’t that I wasn’t — I could not think about not running again. But I did not know who the community would support…”
Rangel also responsed to remarks made by the Rev. Al Sharpton this weekend that hinted the 83-year-old Harlem Democrat shouldn't simply be accorded a final term in office, since Rangel didn't pay deference to his predecessor, Powell.
“The guy before me spent his time in Bimini, not working in Washington and New York like me," said Rangel, who ran in part on Powell's record of missed votes. "The guy before me had the governor, Rockefeller, the mayor, Lindsay, saying we have to fill that vacancy in the Congress.”
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/03/8542248/rangel-challenges-sharpton-argument
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