Rev. Al Sharpton is calling on President Trump to start speaking out -- and tweeting up a storm -- against the the MAGA hatred that apparently fueled the vicious attack on Jussie Smollett.
Sharpton joined us on "TMZ Live" to talk about what happened to his friend and said he doesn't blame Trump for the homophobic, racially-charged attack. However, Sharpton said the President should strongly denounce the attackers to make it crystal clear his slogan shouldn't be used as a battle cry for hate crimes.
As we first reported ... 2 men attacked Smollett at around 2 AM in Chicago and put his head in a noose and doused him in bleach. Jussie's reps say the men screamed, "This is MAGA country" as they fled the scene.
Sharpton told us, if Trump doesn't deliver a stern message to his nearly 58 million followers on Twitter condemning the attack ... "his silence would be very, very deafening."