Outrage as Donald Trump describes impeachment proceedings against him as a ‘lynching’
- The US president’s tweet drew swift backlash against the use of the racially-charged word
“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,” he said. “All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!”
The Twitter post drew a chorus of outrage.
“That is one word that no president ought to apply to himself,” said South Carolina representative James Clyburn, the House majority whip, on CNN. “I’m not just a politician … I’m a product of the south. I know the history of that word,” he added.
“Lynching is a reprehensible stain on this nation’s history, as is this president,” wrote presidential candidate and California senator Kamala Harris. “We’ll never erase the pain and trauma of lynching, and to invoke that torture to whitewash your own corruption is disgraceful.”
The California representative Karen Bass, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told CNN Trump’s “lynching” tweet was consistent with his pattern of throwing out “racial bombs” to give “red meat” to his base when his back is against the wall.
“When the polls get tough, Potus turns to race,” tweeted Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University.
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According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), from 1882 to 1968, “4,743 lynchings” – that is, extrajudicial murders – “occurred in the United States. Of these people that were lynched 3,446 were black”.
“These numbers seem large, but it is known that not all of the lynchings were ever recorded.”
The US’ first lynching memorial and museum was opened in Montgomery, Alabama, last year.
Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina senator who went from fiercely opposing Trump in the 2016 to becoming a stalwart defender of the president, said that process of impeachment now under way – as prescribed in the constitution rather than “without due process”, as Trump claimed – did in fact amount to a lynching.
