Dershowitz: Liberals Have a 'Special Obligation' to Condemn Hard Left When They Engage in Violence and Bigotry

Leah Barkoukis 

Liberal Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz believes liberals have a duty to call out bigotry from the far left just as the president did for the alt-right.

"There’s a lot of bigotry on both sides. I don't want to make moral equivalence," Dershowitz told radio host John Catsimatidis when asked about the violence in Charlottesville that has sparked a national dialogue about race and Confederate statues. "But having said that, that doesn't give a pass to the people on the hard left, who are themselves engaged in violence and also some bigotry of their own."

Dershowitz said both sides need to speak out about bigotry.

"I think the president has a special obligation to condemn the [far] right because they purport to speak on his behalf. Remember that David Duke said he was doing this because he’s trying to carry out Donald Trump’s message. And when that happens, the president has a special obligation to disassociate himself from those who speak on his behalf," he said. 

"People like me who are liberals we have a special obligation to condemn the left, the hard left, for its bigotry.”

He argued Confederate monuments should not be destroyed but rather put in museums where there can be context.

“I don’t want to ever become like the Taliban have been or what the Stalinists were erasing history, destroying history. The question is where the statues belong. I don’t think they belong in public spaces glorifying the Confederacy I think they belong in museums. There should be special museums, special areas that educate. That talk about the history," he said.

Dershowitz also reflected on the Russia probe headed up by special counsel Robert Mueller.

"The idea of trying to create crimes just because we disagree with [the president] politically and target him really endangers democracy," Dershowitz said. "We should only be using the criminal justice system against obvious crimes, crimes that are not stretched and manufactured to fit a particular person."

Instead, Dershowitz argued Congress should have appointed a special committee.

"To give it to a special counsel means it goes behind closed doors to a grand jury where people are not represented, where things happen in darkness and secrecy," he said. "We don't know what's going on. We get leaks, but the leaks are selective leaks. They shouldn't happen."