Trump calls black prosecutors investigating him ‘racist’, suggests retaliatory protests

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Topline

Former President Donald Trump called black prosecutors leading the investigations against Trump racist at a Saturday night rally in Texas, encouraging his supporters to stage protests in prosecutors’ hometowns.

Former President Donald Trump arrives at the ‘Save America’ rally in Montgomery County… [+] Fairgrounds on January 29, 2022 in Conroe, Texas. Trump’s visit was his first Texas MAGA gathering since 2019.

Getty Images Key Facts

At the rally, Trump denounced black prosecutors in Georgia, New York and Washington, DC, independently investigating Trump as “radical, vicious, racist.”

The attorneys listed are Fulton County (Ga.) District Attorney Fani Willis, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Washington, DC Attorney General Karl Racine.

Trump continued that if investigators “do anything wrong or illegal,” he hopes to see “the biggest protests we’ve ever had in Washington, DC, in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere.”

Trump voiced support for a more infamous protest at another point in the rally, suggesting he would consider pardoning protesters accused of their role in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol if elected president in 2024.

Key context

Trump initially lightly chastised his supporters who stormed the Capitol in support of Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, but has since softened his stance on the events, falsely claiming he’s was an “unarmed demonstration”. Willis, the original Atlanta County district attorney, was recently allowed to sit on a special grand jury as part of his investigation into whether to indict Trump over his repeated suggestion of voter fraud in Georgia. . James is investigating Trump and his family for “fraudulent business practices” and filed a motion this week to dismiss Trump’s lawsuit to block the New York investigation from continuing. Racine sued Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee for fraud last January, and a spokesperson for Racine said in November the lawsuit would go to trial.

Large number

761. That’s the number of people charged so far in connection with the attack on the Capitol, according to an Insider analysis.

Surprising fact

A Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted Jan. 22-23 found that Trump is the GOP’s preferred candidate if he runs in 2024, but Biden narrowly leads Trump 46% to 45% in a hypothetical 2024 rematch.

Further reading

Trump’s shift in stance on Jan. 6 attack: From condemnation of rioters to support for ‘protest’ (Forbes)

Trump plays with the crowd – again (Washington Post)

Trump says he would consider pardons for Jan. 6 defendants if elected (New York Times)

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