[White House\Impeachment]
Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush: “You think this impeachment is a LYNCHING? What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country, by people who look like you.”
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele tweeted a picture similar to the above to illustrate to Trump what the term lynching means to African-Americans.
Today, Donald Trump sent yet another offensively racist tweet calling the current House impeachment process against him “a lynching.”
Trump is now being roundly rebuked for this racist tweet.
Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, California Congresswoman Karen Bass, Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Congressman Jim Clyburn, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele–and even Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger have all reacted forcefully to Trump’s incendiary tweet.
In an apparent attempt to distract attention from the allegedly damning testimony today by the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, Trump tweeted “So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching.”
An incensed Congressman Rush retorted to Trump’s tweet saying, “You think this impeachment is a LYNCHING? What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country, by people who look like you.”
Congresswoman Bass tweeted “You are comparing a constitutional process to the PREVALENT and SYSTEMATIC brutal torture of people in THIS COUNTRY that looked like me?”
The word lynching, of course, conjures up awful images of the history of terror and murder that African-Americans faced by the hands of racist whites. In fact, in response to Trump’s tweet, the King Center tweeted “More than 4400 African American men, women, and children were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950.”
Kristen Clarke, president & executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law tweeted “A lynching?! 4,743 people were lynched in the US between 1882 – 1968, incl. 3,446 African Americans. Lynchings were crimes against humanity and an ugly part of our nation’s history of racial violence and brutality. Sickened to see Trump’s gross misappropriation of this term today.”
Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley noted Trump may very well be just trying to distract from the closed door testimony today by Ukraine Ambassador Bill Taylor.
Pressley tweeted “Haven’t even had coffee yet & the occupant of the WH, the bigoted man who called for the execution of the exonerated 5, is tossing the word ‘lynching’ around. Lord give me the strength to not take the bait but hold this man accountable for every single thing he says and does. Don’t take your eye off the ball family. A major witness is testifying today and he’s using a predictable play to try to distract & divide. We see right through him.”
Ambassador Bill Taylor is on record as saying that it was “crazy to withhold security assistance (from Ukraine) for help with a political campaign.” Today’s testimony by Taylor is said to have been severely disturbing–and potentially more damaging to Trump as House Democrats continue their impeachment inquiry. Taylor’s opening statement was reportedly lengthy and prompted “a lot of sighs and gasps.”
South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn said the word lynching, “is one word that no president ought to apply to himself. I’m not a just a politician…I’m a product of the South. I know the history of that word.”
A few Republicans have denounced Trump’s tweet.
So far, the strongest Republican rebuke came from Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who said “We can all disagree on the process, and argue merits. But never should we use terms like ‘lynching’ here. The painful scourge in our history has no comparison to politics, and @realDonaldTrump should retract this immediately. May God help us to return to a better way.”
Maine Senator Susan Collins said, “Lynching’ brings back images of a terrible time in our nation’s history, and the President never should have made that comparison.”
Not surprisingly, most Republicans have been making craven comments. A few are even defending Trump’s nonsense.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy could only bring himself to say “That’s not the language I would use.”
Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who always makes excuses for Trump, said “The president’s frustrated. If you had to go through the three years that this president had to live through, I think, that’s just an example of the frustration the president feels. Remember, this all started even before he got elected. This started on July 31st 2016 when Jim Comey opened the investigation, and put the country through three years of this false accusation that somehow the president worked with Russia to impact the election. So going through that and now this ridiculous charade the Democrats are putting him through, you can understand why the president is frustrated.”
Emasculated Black South Carolina Senator Tim Scott’s response was “There’s no question that the impeachment process is the closest thing to a political death row trial, so I get his absolute rejection of the process. I wouldn’t use the word lynching.”
It seems Scott was following the lead of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who said he had no problem with Trump’s choice of words. Senator Graham, one of the main bootlickers of Trump, said “This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American.”
But former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, denounced Trump and Senator Graham tweeting a photo with an actual lynching while saying, “@realDonaldTrump and @LindseyGrahamSC this is a lynching. Trump this is not happening to you and it’s pathetic that you act like you’re such a victim; but it did happen to 147 black people in your state Lindsey. ‘A lynching in every sense’? You should know better.”