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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 8 Februari 2022

Trump tirade on ‘racist’ DAs echoes other racist tropes

what we’ve seen in our coun- Black prosecutors: New Michael Steele, who more
try,” said one Black district York Attorney General Le- than a decade ago was the first
attorney, Brian Middleton titia James; Manhattan Dis- African American to chair the
of Fort Bend County, Texas, trict Attorney Alvin Bragg, Republican National Com-
which lies southwest of cen- Vance’s successor and the mittee, said Trump was being
tral Houston. first Black person to hold that Trump.
office; Fani Willis, the Fulton
Trump attacking prosecutors County, Georgia, DA; even “If he can race bait it, he will.
is nothing new. When his Rep. Bennie Thompson, the These prosecutors, these
business and political deal- leader of the congressional Black people are coming after
ings are investigated, he often investigation into the Jan. me — the white man,” Steele
strikes back with accusations 6 insurrection. And critics said.
of misconduct and witch say Trump’s rhetoric has es-
hunts. calated, perhaps because he “They didn’t just wake up
recognizes that some among and say, ‘I’m gonna waste city
(AP) — Looking out at bly be treated fairly by Black The former president has his base are receptive to more resources and state resources
a sea of faces at a Texas officials. long been accused of biog- overt racism. to go after Donald Trump,’”
fairground, most of them try. Before the 2016 election, said Steele, a member of the
white, former President The comments carry the Trump called U.S. District “It intensifies that discourse Lincoln Project, a Repub-
Donald Trump seethed echoes of racist messages that Judge Gonzalo Curiel a “hat- and makes it explicitly ra- lican group opposed to the
about his legal troubles have proliferated in recent er” who could not be fair to cial,” said Casey Kelly, a com- former president. “Whether
and blamed them on ma- years –- that Black people him in a fraud case involving munications professor at the the prosecutors are Black or
licious prosecutors. and other minorities are tak- Trump University because of University of Nebraska-Lin- white, his corruption is still
ing power, and that they will the judge’s Hispanic heritage coln who for years has pored the same. It’s him, his ac-
“These prosecutors are vi- exact revenge on white peo- and because Trump vowed to over transcripts of Trump’s tions, his behavior, his deci-
cious, horrible people. ple, or at the very least treat build a wall between the U.S. speeches. sions — and that’s where the
They’re racists and they’re white people as they have and Mexico. onus lies.”
very sick, they’re mentally been treated. At a recent rally in Arizona,
sick,” Trump said, before And after 2017 demonstra- he said -- falsely -- that white There is evidence that
warning his audience: “In That’s among the fears stok- tions by white supremacists people in New York were be- Trump’s words have had
reality, they’re not after me. ing the white supremacy in Charlottesville, Virginia, ing sent to the back of line for consequences. Willis — the
They’re after you.” movement, the so-called turned violent, he said at a antiviral treatments. Georgia prosecutor who
“white replacement theory” news conference that there And now Trump is using the asked a judge to impanel a
He repeated his charge of that people of color will sup- were “very fine people, on investigations against him — special grand jury to help
racism, but skipped over an plant whites in the country’s both sides.” and the prosecutors behind probe possible “criminal dis-
obvious detail: Those pros- power dynamics and social them — as “evidence of a ruptions” by Trump and his
ecutors are Black. structure. He had never accused his larger systemic pattern that allies during the 2020 presi-
prosecutors of racism before white people don’t have a dential election and its af-
His diatribe left the clear im- “These are the same justifi- — but then, until the start place in the future of Amer- termath -- told The Atlanta
pression that Trump, who cations that they use for Jim of the year, one of those at- ica and he’s the only one that Journal-Constitution that
rode the politics of white Crow laws and their mis- torneys was Cyrus Vance Jr., can fight on their behalf,” threats and racist slurs against
grievance into the White treatment of African Ameri- who is white. Kelly said. her have increased since
House, thinks he can’t possi- cans. So this is just a rerun of Now he faces an array of Trump’s rally in Texas.

What does Ivanka Trump know about Jan. 6? Congress is asking

(AP) — President Donald Trump Now the House committee investi- hours when his supporters violently It is highly unusual for congressional
was in the Oval Office with his gating the riot wants to know what stormed Capitol. investigators to target a family mem-
daughter Ivanka and Vice Presi- else Ivanka Trump heard and saw that ber of a president, but as a senior
dent Mike Pence’s national se- day as they try to stitch together the “Ivanka Trump has details about what adviser to her father, she also had a
curity adviser on the morning of narrative of the riots and the former occurred in the lead-up to and on Jan. perch close to power.
Jan. 6, 2021, when he made yet an- president’s role in instigating them. 6 and about the former president’s
other push to pressure Pence. There was a frantic effort by many of state of mind as events unfolded,” Kellogg disclosed the exchange with
Trump’s top supporters to persuade Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla, a the committee, but so far Ivanka
Trump again told Pence that he had a him to intervene, and some directly member of the panel, told The Asso- Trump, who famously guards her im-
duty to reject Electoral College votes sought to use his daughter as their ciated Press. age and public profile, has not talked
that would formalize Democrat Joe conduit. to the panel.
Biden’s victory in the 2020 presiden-
tial election, something the vice pres- A committee aide said they are hope-
ident had no authority to do in his ful that she will soon commit to a
ceremonial role in Congress that day. time to meet.

“You don’t have the courage to make Throughout her time in the White
a hard decision,” Trump told Pence, House, Ivanka Trump was known as
according to congressional testimo- a rare voice who could get through
ny. Even after Trump called him a to her father and talk him out of bad
“wimp,” Pence rebuffed the demand, decisions, though her success was
issuing a lengthy statement afterward mixed. The former first daughter
laying out his conclusion that he had has kept an extraordinary low profile
no power to influence the outcome. since her father left office and has dis-
tanced herself from him and politics
When the call ended, Ivanka Trump since moving to Florida.
turned to retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kel-
logg and said, “Mike Pence is a good But her proximity to him on Jan. 6
man.” could provide the committee with
direct access to what Trump was
“Yes, he is,” Kellogg replied. doing during those crucial three