While former President Donald Trump attends the second day of his criminal trial in Manhattan, where he faces 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business documents to cover up payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) is trying to influence the way Americans view the trial.
Scott, who is considered a vice presidential candidate for Trump, contends — taking the MAGA line — that Trump is being persecuted by Biden’s “weaponized” Department of Justice to keep the presumptive GOP nominee off the campaign trail.
According to Breitbart News, Scott said the “prejudiced” trial would not be happening if Trump were not running for president, and compared Trump’s trial to the justice system targeting Black men because of the color of their skin.
Scott said: “Imagine if this was not about the red party versus the blue party; imagine that this was a racial issue.”
The MAGA Senator added: “Put a Black person in the position where the legal system is coming after them because of the color of their skin and because of what they represent for hope in America.”
Scott is not alone in portraying the former President’s predicament as analogous to the victims of systemic racial discrimination. Trump himself has done it. After claiming that Black people appreciated him more — due to empathy — when they saw his mug shot, Trump more recently compared himself to the famous South African leader Nelson Mandela, whose principled stance in the face of discrimination helped end apartheid in his country.
“I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela – It will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump wrote on social media.
[Black Lives Matter PAC senior advisor Angela Angel told The Grio that Trump comparing himself to Mandela “is like comparing a circus clown to a Nobel laureate.” Mandela spent “nearly three decades in prison fighting against apartheid,” she said, “and [Trump] should be in prison for fraud, sexual assault, and orchestrating an attempted coup on the United States government.”]
Put a black person in the position where the legal system is coming after them because of the color of their skin and because of what they represent for hope in America. https://t.co/rO4SwfJ3Zo
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) April 16, 2024
Note: Sen. Scott is also pushing the false MAGA narrative that Judge Juan Merchan won’t allow Trump to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation in May. Court is scheduled for that day and as a criminal defendant, Trump must attend, just like any other criminal defendant.
Trump’s request for that day off hasn’t been denied by Merchan as Scott contends — the judge has yet to rule on the request. That fact hasn’t deterred Scott from accusing the court of trying to punish Trump by “using the legal system as a sledgehammer against him and his family.”