A memorial service for the Rev. Jesse Jackson at Chicago's House of Hope on Friday became something other than a farewell.
The New York Post reported that one by one, the Democratic Party's biggest names walked to the microphone, ostensibly to eulogize a civil rights leader who died last month at 84, and instead turned the service into a coordinated broadside against President Trump.
Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Al Sharpton each used their time at the pulpit to attack the current administration.
None mentioned Trump by name. They didn't need to. The target was unmistakable, and so was the intent.
Harris, who Trump overwhelmingly beat in their 2024 presidential election, opened with a line that had nothing to do with Jackson's legacy:
"Let me just say I predicted a lot about what's happening right now. I'm not into saying I told you so but we did see it coming."
She then pivoted to acknowledge Jackson's absence, but the first instinct was revealing. A funeral is supposed to honor the dead. Harris used it to relitigate a loss.
Obama delivered the most polished version of the same message, describing what he called the state of the country under Trump's leadership:
"Each day we wake up to some new assault on our Democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to, to things you just didn't think were possible."
He continued:
"Each day, we're told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don't even count at all."
Obama did eventually circle back to Jackson, crediting Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign with paving the way for his own bid in 2008. He joked about surviving Chicago winters as a Hawaii transplant. But the political sermon came first. The eulogy came second.
Biden was blunter. He took aim at the man who replaced him in the Oval Office:
"We're in a tough spot, folks. We've got an administration that doesn't share any of the values that we have. And I don't think I'm exaggerating a little bit."
Sharpton delivered the rallying cry:
"I don't care what they do in Washington, I care what we do in the community. We've beat people bigger than Trump!"
So much for solemnity.
The guest list told its own story. Legendary basketball player Isaiah Thomas noted there were "five presidents" in attendance, a count that included Harris and Hillary Clinton alongside Obama, Biden, and Bill Clinton.
Also present: Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Jill Biden, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The pews looked less like a memorial and more like a Democratic National Convention without the balloon drop.
This is what a party out of power does when it has no legislative vehicle, no viable 2028 frontrunner, and no message that resonates beyond its base. It commandeers a funeral.
The Democratic establishment has been searching for a stage since January, and they found one on the South Side of Chicago, draped in the moral authority of a man who could no longer object to how his farewell was being used.
There's a pattern here. The left treats every institution, every ceremony, every tradition as a platform. Churches become campaign stops. Funerals become rallies. The line between mourning and messaging dissolves because, for this generation of Democratic leaders, everything is politics. Nothing is sacred enough to leave alone.
Bill Clinton, to his credit, delivered something closer to an actual tribute. He warmly remembered Jackson as a friend and recounted a phone call from Jackson during his 1998 impeachment:
"When the Congress was trying to run me out and I was in that big impeachment fight, Jesse called me one night in the White House. I thought he was calling me, but he said, I don't want to talk to you. I want you to go get Chelsea."
Clinton said Jackson prayed with his daughter on the phone that night. He reflected on the moment simply:
"Those are the things you remember."
Clinton told attendees he was there "more as a friend than a former president" and urged the crowd to ask themselves how they could "do more by being a better friend and a more effective one."
Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 on charges of lying under oath and obstruction of justice before the Senate acquitted him. Whatever one thinks of that chapter, his eulogy at least attempted to honor the man in the casket rather than score points against the man in the White House.
Trump did not attend. A White House official said he was unable to be there due to scheduling and ongoing events, noting he spent the day in meetings on the Iran war and hosting college sports representatives. He recorded a video message in tribute.
George W. Bush was also absent. Neither was Michelle Obama.
Trump's absence will be framed by the usual critics as a slight. But given what the service became, his decision to stay in Washington conducting the business of the presidency looks less like a snub and more like the only dignified option available.
Jesse Jackson's legacy is complicated, as all long political lives are. But he earned his funeral. He earned eulogies about his life, his campaigns, his work, his faith. What he got instead, from most of the speakers, was a proxy war waged over his open casket.
The Democratic Party didn't honor Jesse Jackson on Friday. They used him. And the saddest part is that no one in that building seemed to notice the difference.
