Rev. Jackson on the ‘venomous’ attack on Obama

>> jesse jackson is the president and founder of the rainbow push coalition and was part of those protests yesterday. always good to see you, reverend. good morning.

>> indeed.

>> the special prosecutor in the case is expected to interview trayvon's girlfriend as early as today. she was on the phone with him moments before he was shot. let me get your take on where this case stands, from what you know, having been there and having tauxd lked to so many people.

>> several things. we know he was suspended, there's too much of that, i might add, from school. he was then profiled, pursued and killed. and the killer walks free, zimmerman. it does not stop that in that 25 states with the "stand your ground" law which incentivizes vigilantes, that law will be challenged and must be to be repealed. also i'm convinced to revive the ban on assault weapons as well. it unearths a lot of issues here, all of which deals with, how do we handle race relations and the issue of violence?

>> let me start with the violence part of it because there have been other things that have happened. tragedies that have happened and there have been calls to reform gun control laws and those kinds of things. and it seems like nothing happens. is there something about this case in particular that you think will be different?

>> maybe because it is so very public. it's not unique in that it's exceptional because you have the case in pasadena, the watch case -- autistic kid killed in chicago. but somehow when people finally saw this and saw an unarmed kid shot by an armed vigilante, a man who was told by the dispatcher to not pursue him. and then the killer walked away, that humiliation has touched something deep within the american people . and that exposes a whole body of information about the issue of police relations. also in that same police department , a man beat a homeless black man nearly to death. he walked away free because his father was an officer in that police department .

>> let me ask you this about something else you've said. honestly, it surprised me, reverend. you said that you don't necessarily feel that the election of president obama did what a lot of people thought it would do, which would be to improve race relations , to help move racial equality forward. why?

>> he raised the hopes that he's been under such venomous attack -- the captain of the ship as an african-american who's taking us out of an economic crisis on an upward swing. but there are those who are willing to sink the ship just to destroy the captain. you hear santorum last night -- you hear his birthplace being attacked, his citizenship being attacked, his religion being attacked. it's not his fault but certainly on his watch, we've seen this ugly backlash.

>> reverend jesse jackson , always great to have you on the program and hear your thoughts. we do appreciate it. we'll