The Central Park Five blast Donald Trump on the final night of the DNC

♪ THIS NOVEMBER WE WILL GO FORWARD TO FULFILL THE PROMISE OF A JUST AND FAIR NATION, AND LET ME SAY AS WE TRANSITION I'M A PREACHER AND IN PSALMS IT SAYS WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO EBB DEWER FOR A NIGHT BUT LIGHT COMES EARLY IN THE MORNING. WE'VE ENDURED JANUARY 6 AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND LIES AND DARKNESS, BUT IF WE STAY TOGETHER, BLACK, WHITE, LATINA, ASIAN, INDIAN AMERICAN, IF WE STAY TOGETHER, JOY, JOY, JOY, JOY COMING IN THE MORNING! [ CHEERS AND APPLAUSE ] >> LISTEN TO THAT. OUR FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE, THE REVEREND AL SHARPTON BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, THE CROWD ON ITS FEET AT THE FINAL NIGHT OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. THE REV ALSO HAD SOME SPECIAL GUESTS. HE ALSO INCLUDED MEMBERS OF THE EXONERATED FIVE WHO WITNESSED FIRSTHAND THE EXTENT OF DONALD TRUMP'S CRUELTY AND CALLOUSNESS AND CARELESSNESS. WHEN TRUMP TOOK OUT A FULL-PAGE AD IN THE "NEW YORK DAILY NEWS" CALLING FOR THE FIVE WHO WERE TEENAGERS AT THE TIME TO RECEIVE THE DEATH PENALTY FOR A CRIME THEY DIDN'T COMMIT. ONE OF THE FIVE NOW A NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN CALLING FOR AMERICA TO MOVE BEYOND THE DISGRACED EX-PRESIDENT. HE INVOKES THE TITLE OF THE MINISERIES ABOUT THE FIVE'S FIGHT TO CLEAR THEIR NAMES "WHEN THEY SEE US." WATCH. >> TOGETHER ON NOVEMBER 5 WE WILL USHER IN KAMALA HARRIS AND TIM WALZ INTO THE WHITE HOUSE. [ APPLAUSE ] SO I WANT TO DO THIS. WHEN I SAY ONE DAY, I WANT YOU TO SAY SEE US. >> ONE DAY. >> SEE US. >> WHEN THEY SEE US, AMERICA WILL FINALLY SAY GOOD-BYE TO THAT HATEFUL MAN. [ APPLAUSE ] WE WILL SAY WHAT I HAVE SAID AFTER SEVEN LONG YEARS OF WRONGFUL INCARCERATION FREE AT LAST. FREE AT LAST. FREE AT LAST, THANK GOD, ALMIGHTY, WE ARE FREE AT LAST. GOD BLESS YOU AND GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! . >> JOINING OURS CONVERSATION THE DISTINGUISHED POLITICAL SCHOLAR AND PROFESSOR AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY AND THE REV IS HERE. I'M PROUD TO HAVE YOU AS A COLLEAGUE BUT IF YOU COULD HAVE SEEN US AT 30 ROQUE BEAMING IN THAT MOMENT AS YOU REALLY BROUGHT THE CROWD -- IT WAS LIKE A CATHARTIC MOMENT, NOT A DRY EYE WE SAW IN OUR CAMERA SHOTS AND BROUGHT THEM TO THEIR FEET WITH THAT PRESENTATION. TELL ME WHAT THAT WAS LIKE FOR YOU. >> WELL, I WANTED TO REALLY SPEAK TO THE FACT THAT, YES, I LEAD A CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION AND WE DON'T ENDORSE CANDIDATES, BUT WHICH DO TALK ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE COUNTRY AND WE DO ASSESS CANDIDATES, AND I WANTED TO SAY TO THEM THAT WE MUST FIGHT WHAT TRUMP REPRESENTS, BUT WE ALSO MUST FIGHT TOWARDS BRINGING THE COUNTRY BACK TO A POSITION OF HOPE, AND I FIND THE MOST EFFECTIVE PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE THAT PREACH HOPE. I REMEMBER IN THE '80s JESSE JACKSON WHO USED TO BE A YOUTH DIRECTOR, A NEW YORK YOUTH DIRECTOR USED TO TALK ABOUT KEEP HOPE ALIVE. LATER BARACK OBAMA, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, SO WE DON'T FIGHT OUT OF BITTERNESS OR REVENGE, WE FIGHT OUT OF HOPE WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF DONALD TRUMP WHO IS ALL GRIEVANCE, WHO IS ALL COMPLAINING, AND ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I WANTED TO GIVEN IN MY REPORT IS THERE'S ANY NUMBER OF POLLS THAT ARE SAYING AND DONALD TRUMP KEEPS ADVOCATING OR PUTTING THEM OUT THERE, PROMOTING THEM, THAT BLACK MEN, SOME BLACK MEN ARE TRENDING HIS WAY, AND I WANTED TO SAY, WELL, LET ME SHOW YOU WHO THOSE OF US IN HIS HOMETOWN NEW YORK KNOWS HOW HE FEELS ABOUT BLACK MEN. IN 1989 A WHITE FEMALE WAS VICIOUSLY, MALICIOUSLY BEATEN AND RAPED IN CENTRAL PARK. IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST INCORRIGIBLE ACTS WE'VE EVER HEARD OF. THEY BLAMED FIVE YOUNG BLACK AND LATINO YOUNG MEN, FOUR OF WHO WERE IN THE PARK THAT NIGHT. THEY WERE COERCED INTO CONFESSIONS. ONE OF THE MOMS CALLED ME AS THE NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK AND OTHER GROUPS AND SAID WE DON'T BELIEVE THEY WERE GUILTY. NO WAY DO WE CONDONE WHAT HAPPENED TO HER AND THEY WERE COERCED CONFESSIONS. THEY WERE CONVICTED AND WENT TO JAIL. THE OLDEST ONE WAS ONLY 16 AT THE TIME, CORY WEISS DID 13 YEARS AT JAIL AND THEY GOT OUT WHEN SOMEONE IN JAIL INADVERTENTLY TOLD ANOTHER INMATE THAT HE DID IT, THEY MATCHED THE DNA AND THEY HAD TO RELEASE THESE YOUNG MEN. WHERE DO YOU GO DOING 13 YEARS IN JAIL FOR A CRIME THEY DIDN'T COMMIT? WE HIRED CORY-WISES UNTIL HE GOT A SETTLEMENT FROM THE CITY. DONALD TRUMP NOT ONLY CALLED FOR THEM TO GET THE DEATH PENALTY IN '89 WHEN IT HAPPENED, HE SAID THE CITY SHOULD NEVER SETTLE WITH THEM AND HE CONTINUED TO ADVOCATE AGAINST THEM, SO THAT'S WHY I WANTED THE PEOPLE TO SEE THIS IS HOW HE DEALS WITH BLACK MEN IN HIS OWN TOWN. WE CAN ALL BE WRONG ABOUT A CASE BUT TO ADVOCATE A DEATH PENALTY AND THEN TO COME BACK YEARS LATER AND SAY DON'T EVEN SETTLE WHEN DNA PROVED THAT THEY WERE NOT THE ONES INVOLVED, AND I THOUGHT IT WAS A DRAMATIC AND IMPORTANT WAY TO LOOK AT THE CONVENTION LAST NIGHT AND TO SEE THESE YOUNG MEN NEVER GAVE UP HOPE. THE REST OF THEM HAVE LECTURED AT SCHOOLS, AND YOUSEF SALAAM IS A CITY COUNCILMAN. THEY DID NOT DROWN IN A SEA OF CYNICISM. THEY REPRESENTED HOPE AGAINST COME OF THE MOST EGREGIOUS THINGS THAT I SEE HAPPEN AND PART OF IT WAS DONALD TRUMP. LET ME SAY THIS IN CLOSING. DONALD TRUMP NEVER TOOK A POSITION ON ANY OTHER RACE CASE IN NEW YORK, NOT HOWARD BEACH 35 YEARS AGO THAT HAPPENED IN THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS WHERE HE WAS BORN AND RAISED, NEVER OPENED HIS MOUTH, BENSONHURST WHICH WAS GOING ON AT THE TIME OF CENTRAL PARK, A BLACK YOUNG MAN WAS KILLED JUST FOR BEING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD ALL THE WAY TO GEORGE FLOYD. THE ONLY CASE HE EVER STOOD UP AND PUT MONEY UP TO BUY ADS WAS TO GET THESE FIVE YOUNG MEN. YOU'D HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF, FINE, YOU KNOW, IF YOU DID TEN CASES IN ONE OR TWO YOU DISAGREED WITH, FINE, BUT HE