Trump is pulling ‘the race card’ because he abhors being prosecuted by Black lawyers: former GOP strategist

Upon learning that he could be facing indictment in New York over hush payments to an adult film star, former President Donald Trump immediately attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis — all of whom are Black — as “racists.”

That language is no accident, argued former GOP communications strategist Tara Setmayer on Thursday’s edition of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut.”

“He’s gone right to the race card,” said anchor Joy Reid. “He’s gone right to ‘they’re racists.’ As silly and Trumpy as that is, it’s also dangerous at a time when we face the largest increase in racist violence and threats from white nationalism. This is what the FBI director, Christopher Wray, has said. Donald Trump would use that to his advantage if he were indicted. Correct?”

“Absolutely,” Setmayer said. “That’s not you or me saying that. That is the law enforcement professionals who study this, who are paid by the taxpayers to make sure that the American people are fully aware of what the threats are to the country, domestic and abroad. That’s what they have said. We didn’t make it up. So we can see with our own eyes the type of extremism that Trump and Trumpism has ginned up during the era of Trump on the political scene.”

“We could have predicted what his response was going to be,” continued Setmayer. “As soon as we saw that the prosecutors happened to be African-American in all three cases here, which are the biggest legal threats to Donald Trump yet, you could have predicted what he would say.

And you know what, it’s so typical because you know what an average white guy fears more is successful people of color who are in positions of power. So yeah, he should be afraid of them, because they are actually excellent at what they’re doing.

And they have evidence against him that, for once, he may actually pay a price. And there’s nothing worse for Donald Trump, not only could he potentially be held accountable, but by people of color. This is par for the course for him. He’s been a racist his entire life, all the way back to his first time on the front page of the New York Post because of racist housing policy with him and his father in the ’70s.”

“So the idea that this is just another avenue for him to use the race card isn’t surprising to me. But this is part of his brand,” she added. “What’s more problematic is that the Republican Party, and the leaders of the party who claim they need new generational leadership and how they need to turn the page, none of them will come out and condemn this, because they know they need that base.”