The late Rev. Jesse Jackson leaves a complicated legacy that includes both generosity and controversy, author and investigative journalist Ken Timmerman, who wrote "Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson," said on Newsmax Tuesday.
"He did love people, but he also leaves a very checkered past," Timmerman told "National Report," after the news broke that the civil rights leader had died early Tuesday at the age of 84.
Timmerman said he had not originally planned to write about Jackson but became interested after learning about the civil rights activist's half-brother.
"I never thought I would write a book about Jesse Jackson," he said. "I started off in 2001."
"I was approached by a black pastor in Virginia who came to me and said, 'Oh, well, you know about Noah Robinson, Jesse Jackson's half-brother. He's in jail on a life sentence for terrorism charges.'"
"And I said, 'What? I never heard of this man before,'" added Timmerman. "And that kind of piqued my interest."
Timmerman said his research took him repeatedly to Chicago, where he met with Jackson.
"He was always generous with his time," Timmerman said. "And he did not hesitate to talk about his brother, who he thought was a fallen soul, who had had his problems with the law."
Timmerman also referenced Jackson's early years in Chicago.
"Jesse also had his problems with the law early on with the street gangs in Chicago," he said. "It's a side of him that has not been told — or had not been told before."
"Barbara Reynolds, a black reporter in Chicago, wrote about it in 1975. I kind of picked up where she left off."
Pastor Joe Watkins, host of "State of Independence" and a onetime aide to former President George W. Bush, offered a more personal remembrance, saying he first met Jackson in the 1980s while serving as an aide to then-Sen. Dan Quayle and later encountered him while working in the White House.
Watkins recalled hosting Jackson as a guest during his time on CNN's "Crossfire."
"I gave him a hard time, but he was one of our guests, and he took it pretty well," said Watkins.
He added that despite political divisions, Jackson often focused on encouraging those facing hardship.
"I was grateful for the things that he said that brought people together and that encouraged people who were having a hard time," he said. "He was very, very good at that."
While acknowledging policy differences between Democrats and Republicans, Watkins said Jackson "did his best to try to make this a better place" even as he, like others, "made mistakes."
Watkins noted that President Donald Trump had a long-standing relationship with Jackson dating back decades.
"I know President Trump and he had a good relationship," Watkins said, adding that Trump had provided office space for Jackson's organization in one of his buildings in the 1980s.
Trump on Tuesday posted a lengthy tribute on Truth Social, calling Jackson "a good man with lots of personality, grit and street smarts" and "very gregarious, someone who truly loved people."
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