Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Harry Belafonte sitting in judgment of monuments in New York City:
New York City’s left-wing mayor, Bill de Blasio, has selected his left-wing friend, Harry Belafonte, to advise him on which New York City monuments are so hateful that they should be removed. The singer is one of 18 persons selected to be on the panel which will render an opinion.
Belafonte knows a thing or two about hatred: He is a supreme hate-monger himself, having spewed his vitriol at America, as well as many prominent Americans, for decades.
Virtually everyone concedes that Osama bin Laden was a genocidal maniac, one responsible for the deaths of legions of his own people, never mind thousands of Americans. But in the eyes of Belafonte, the mass murderer is no different from George W. Bush.
“To the extent that you can describe Osama bin Laden as a terrorist, a man who has been smitten by the worst aspects of civil villainy. I think one can say the same thing about Bush.” [“Harry Belafonte’s Five Feistiest Political Quotes,” Washington Post, October 18, 2011]
Actually, Belafonte believes Bush was worse than bin Laden. He called the 43rd president “the greatest tyrant in the world [and] the greatest terrorist in the world.” [“Blacks Repudiate Belafonte,” National Leadership Network of Conservative African Americans, news release, January 13, 2006]
Belafonte also blamed America for creating bin Laden. “Bin Laden didn’t come from the abstract. He came from somewhere, and if you look where, you’ll see America’s hand of villainy.” [“Did Harry Belafonte Dishonor America?”, The O’Reilly Factor, foxnews.com, December 1, 2005]
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez hated America, was a true tyrant, and impoverished his nation. But to Belafonte, he was a hero: “We respect you, we admire you.” [“Blacks Repudiate Belafonte”]
Belafonte’s praise for Chavez came on January 7, 2006, three days after the Venezuelan dictator was publicly condemned in the U.S. for accusing Jews of money grabbing worldwide. Two weeks earlier, on Christmas Eve, Chavez told the TV audience that “the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ have taken over all the wealth of the world.” [“Blacks Repudiate Belafonte”]
Belafonte also blamed Jews for conspiring with the Nazis, saying, “Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich.” [“Belafonte’s Retraction of Remarks on Jews Causes New Flap,” cnsnews.com, July 7, 2008]
The Koch brothers, Charles and David, are libertarian philanthropists, but because they are associated with conservative causes, Belafonte sees them as analogous to the Ku Klux Klan. He calls them “white supremacists” and “men of evil.” [“Harry Belafonte’s Greatest Hits,” freebeacon.com, November 4, 2013]
Colin Powell was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State, but to Belafonte, the four-star general was nothing more than a house slave. “There’s an old saying in the days of slavery. There are those slaves who lived on the plantation, and there were those slaves who lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master. Colin Powell was permitted to come into the house of the master.” [“Harry Belafonte’s Greatest Hits”]
To Belafonte, black music = coon music. “There’s certainly much more anger in rap than I’ve ever evidenced in coon songs. Coon songs seem more willing to placate.” [“Harry Belafonte’s Five Feistiest Political Quotes”]
Belafonte’s support for a dictatorship at home was made clear when he implored President Obama to start one. Speaking of Republicans who were blocking Obama’s programs, the singer said, “The only thing left for Barack Obama to do is to work like a third world dictator and just put all these guys in jail.” [“Harry Belafonte, MSNBC Criticized over ‘Jailing Republicans’ Remarks,” foxnews.com, December 14, 2012]
The evidence is unambiguous. Belafonte’s hatred of America is matched only by his love for Communist regimes in the Soviet Union, East Germany, Cuba. [See the “Guide to the Political Left” article on Belafonte available at discoverthenetworks.org]
This is the kind of person that Mayor de Blasio will be taking his cues from in assessing which monuments should be taken down.
If America acted the way Belafonte’s beloved regimes did—the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Cuba—he would not be serving New York’s executive—he would be executed. Lucky for him America was founded by men like Washington, Madison, and Jefferson, all of whom believed in inalienable rights, and not in the virtues of tyranny.
Contact Eric Phillips, press secretary to Mayor de Blasio: pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov
