Al Sharpton says Donald Trump’s arrest is a ‘spiritual’ payoff for racial injustice

Some prominent civil rights activists, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, have called the arrest of former President Donald Trump a “social justice” moment, with Trump criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and others. Two black prosecutors accuse him of pursuing him as a racist.

Sharpton was pleased that Trump was arrested on 34 felony counts in New York on Tuesday, the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

The arrest marks the end of Trump’s policies as president and his execution of five black and Hispanic teenagers who were wrongfully imprisoned and later acquitted for raping a white woman in Central Park in 1989. He said it was a kind of “spiritual” reward for the request.

“I’m always looking for a spiritual interpretation of something. And on the 55th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, the president who tried to undo much of what Dr. I think it’s very ironic to be prosecuted in the Manhattan Supreme Court,” Sharpton said. He spoke at a New York University forum before Trump’s arraignment. “I’m thinking of Dr. King. First Black he’ll bring Manhattan’s DA to bring us justice and bring criminal charges against President Trump.”

His audience laughed and applauded enthusiastically.

Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Zhang told The Washington Times: Sharpton should clean up his own house before talking about his cluelessness. ”

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SEE ALSO: Alvin Bragg indicted Trump based on shaky legal theory, expert warns

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Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougall before the 2016 election. rice field.

Some Trump supporters see the timing of Trump’s arrest as spiritual, but note that it was Holy Week for an entirely different reason. Among them is Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who traveled to New York to protest his arrest.

“Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government,” she told NBC News. [Tuesday] in New York City.

At the same event as Sharpton, civil rights activist Jennifer Jones Austin called Trump’s arrest “a real landmark, a real indicator of progress.” She is the CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, an anti-poverty and advocacy group.

“As we remember Dr. King [on Tuesday] And with all that he stood for, the first black Manhattan district attorney holds President Trump accountable for his crimes,” she said. “A man who has built a legacy on the backs of the underprivileged and the less powerful is finally brought to justice.”

Trump says he is the victim of reverse racism by Bragg, Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Lani Willis, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. They are all black.

After appearing in court, Trump referred to Willis’ grand jury, saying, “They have a local racist Democratic district attorney in Atlanta who’s doing everything in their power to indict me with the absolutely perfect phone call.” I am doing my best,” he said. Investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 Georgia election results.

He called Mr. Bragg a “failed district attorney,” but had previously called him a “reverse racist.”

“The offender is a district attorney who illegally leaked large amounts of grand jury information and should be charged or at least resign,” he said of Mr. Bragg.

Trump has unleashed most of his criticism of James over the ongoing $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against James, his family, and the Trump Organization.

“This time it’s another racist civil investigation in reverse who campaigned, ‘I’ll get Trump, I’ll get him,'” Trump said. “Her name is Letitia James and during her campaign she declared, ‘Every day I look forward to going to the Attorney General’s office and suing him and then going home to her.’ .”

He also called Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump for his mishandling of classified documents and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, “as a bomber. A known radical left-wing lunatic.” ” Mr. Smith is white.

Sharpton, president of the activist organization National Action Network and host of MSNBC’s “Politics Nation,” said Trump’s response to the infamous incident then known as “Central Park 5.” He also mentioned involvement. In 1989, he paid for a newspaper advertisement calling for their execution.

“They were victims not only of a criminal justice system that failed to protect them, but of the bitterness and hatred spewed by men like Trump,” he said. Today, we see progress in the arc of history bending toward justice, as Dr. King said, celebrating a moment of justice on the anniversary of King’s assassination, but that the work is far from done. must be remembered.”

He expressed a sense of vindication that Trump was “arraigned in New York by a black Attorney General who could only get into Harvard because of Martin Luther King.” [and] Investigated by Black Women DA in Georgia. ”

“You may say the arc of justice is long, [justice] And I think that often comes full circle,” Sharpton said.