Donald Trump has repeatedly called the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry (as well as Robert Mueller’s investigation before it) a “witch hunt,” a “fraud,” a “hit job,” and the like. But he reached a new low in his gaslighting self-victimization Tuesday when he referred to the inquiry as a “lynching.”
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. But we will WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2019
It’s one thing to so completely misrepresent this process (impeachment IS due process!), but to call it a lynching. Trump once claimed that “There has been no President in the history of our Country who has been treated so badly as I have.” Melania said she was “the most bullied person in the world.” These are not people with self-awareness.
But “lynching” is so specifically rooted in a history of brutal racism that Trump’s usage is shockingly offensive, even for him.
A lynching! A lynching? I’m thinking about the lies, the kidnapping, the rope, the torture, the cheering crowd, the death portrait, the people walking away with body parts of my ancestor.
THAT IS WITNESSING A #LYNCHING.
The audacity of this White male supremacist. https://t.co/PwhI1uMZGP
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) October 22, 2019
“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.” ~@MemPeaceJustice https://t.co/qGmK6VFwCw#LynchingMemorial #Lynching @realDonaldTrump @POTUS
— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) October 22, 2019
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. Delete this tweet. https://t.co/oTMhWo4awR
— Bobby L. Rush (@RepBobbyRush) October 22, 2019
Lynching is a reprehensible stain on this nation’s history, as is this President. We’ll never erase the pain and trauma of lynching, and to invoke that torture to whitewash your own corruption is disgraceful. https://t.co/XOlsazwwRL
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 22, 2019
Of course, there are some Republicans still clamoring to defend Trump, even here. The always terrible Lindsey Graham said this “is a lynching in every sense.” (He also called it “un-American,” as if our country weren’t built on a foundation of violent racism.)
Senator Lindsay Graham on Donald Trump’s tweet comparing impeachment process to #lynching “Yes, this is a lynching and in every sense this is un-American” pic.twitter.com/yedjHLsC0I
— Sonia Dridi (@Sonia_Dridi) October 22, 2019
Graham just angrily doubled down on agreeing this is a political “lynching”
“What’s happened to your profession?” he scolds reporters
“It’s not just racial my friends. No. I’m from South Carolina I understand it very well. Mob rule is what lynching is all about”
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) October 22, 2019
Ted Cruz also defended Trump (obviously).
GOP Sen. Cruz: “obviously a word with significant historical freight. The connotation the president is carrying forward is a political mob seeking an outcome regardless of facts. And that I think is an objectively true description of what is happening in the House right now” https://t.co/UolbZZ28pF
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) October 22, 2019
Newt Gingrich defended Trump on The View while also admitting “there are things he does that make it harder” to do so.
During an appearance on The View, Newt Gingrich defends Trump’s #lynching comment about impeachment by telling co-hosts, two of whom are black women, to “put yourself in Trump’s shoes.” JFC. Why are we still putting this lowlife on TV? pic.twitter.com/bkrSJaYQCI
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) October 22, 2019
Ohio’s Jim Jordan is also defending Trump by saying “he’s frustrated,” which is, at its core, just a rewording of a “you brought this on yourself” sort of sentiment.
.@Jim_Jordan defends Trump calling the impeachment inquiry a “lynching”: “The president’s frustrated.” pic.twitter.com/MZ9oCoPJnp
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) October 22, 2019
Here is a great thread, by the way, for anyone who doesn’t understand why “lynching” is not a word to throw around just because someone is “frustrated.” (Click through for more resources.)
I want you all to read “Lynch Law” by Ida B. Wells, the Black woman activist who forced America to reckon with her own racial terror, to understand why #lynching is not a term to toss haphazardly. https://t.co/gnuDW5bQoN pic.twitter.com/0wsoCUnodW
— brittany packnett cunningham (@MsPackyetti) October 22, 2019
(image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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Published: Oct 22, 2019 01:26 pm