Al Sharpton's Bizarre Accusation: Beck and Bachmann Are to Blame for Egyptians Pelting Clinton's Motorcade With Tomatoes...Last Year

Photo Credit: MSNBC

The Rev. Al Sharpton took to his MSNBC television show on Wednesday to wage some bizarre accusations against radio and television show host Glenn Beck and Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Referencing a July 2012 trip to Egypt during which protesters threw shoes and tomatoes at then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade, Sharpton used some odd logic to blame Beck and Bachmann for the incident.

"Who can forget this bogus theory? They claimed Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's former top aide, was connected to the Muslim Brotherhood," Sharpton said, as he setup the segment about an incident that happened nearly a year ago.

After airing a brief radio exchange between Beck and Bachmann last year during which the two discussed Abedin -- and Bachmann explained questions and curiosities surrounding about her background -- Sharpton unleashed, accusing the two of being the root cause of the Egyptian protesters' unrest.

"There is absolutely nothing to back these claims but this rumor gained so much traction it was picked up in the Middle East and pelted with tomatoes when visiting Egypt because of it," Sharpton charged, claiming that Abedin's potential connection to the Muslim Brotherhood in America sparked Middle Eastern outrage. "Right-wing fearmongering has real dangerous consequences."

Then, in a fit of what he assumed was victory, the fiery MSNBC host asked, "Did Beck think we'd let him get away with this latest ridiculous claim?" Quickly answering his own rhetorical question, he said, "Nice try: but we got you."

Watch the bizarre segment, below (the tomato pelting claim starts around 2:15 mark):

The reason this accusation is particularly odd is due to the fact that media accounts of the events that unfolded when Clinton went to Egypt last July mention nothing of angst from the Muslim Brotherhood over the reasons Sharpton cited.

In fact, quite the contrary, it was wildly reported that protesters threw shoes and tomatoes at her motorcade while chanting, "Monica, Monica," in reference to Bill Clinton's widely-publicized affair. And, based on numerous reports, it's likely that Clinton's political speeches and meetings had much more to do with the pelting than anything else.

Here's what the Daily Mail wrote at the time:

The assault on her motorcade came on the day Mrs Clinton spoke at the newly re-opened U.S. consulate in Alexandria, addressing accusations that the U.S., which had long supported former president Hosni Mubarak, was meddling in Egyptian politics.

'I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which of course we cannot,' Mrs Clinton said.

And the New York Daily News also reported that there was no clear consensus on who, exactly, the protesters even were:

It was not clear who the protesters were, or what their political affiliation was.

On Saturday, protesters chanted anti-Islamist slogans outside Clinton’s hotel, accusing the U.S. of backing the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power.

The Islamists, on the other hand, complain that Washington spent years propping up former President Hosni Mubarak and tacitly encouraging his often brutal efforts to suppress religious militancy.

As for the Abedin family's alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, there's been a deep examination of these issues before, as documented by National Review. TheBlaze's Tiffany Gabbay has covered this as well.

(H/T: Newsbusters)

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