CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin Says Trump’s Pardons Are Just ‘Theater’: He Still Wants ‘To Fight With Black People’
Jeffrey Toobin said Friday that Donald Trump’s pardons of black people unfairly treated by the criminal justice system are just “great theater” — since the CNN legal analyst claimed the president still wants to “fight with black people.”
Toobin made the remarks while discussing the differences between former President Barack Obama’s approach to pardons and Trump’s approach, which most recently relied on lobbying efforts from reality TV star Kim Kardashian to commute Alice Johnson’s sentencing — a black woman convicted for nonviolent drug crimes.
“There wasn’t this great theater [with Obama], there weren’t a lot of celebrities involved, there were no celebrities, but that is how you impact a lot of lives,” Toobin said.
He continued: “By fighting with the NFL players, by fighting with the UCLA basketball players, by his comments in Charlottesville, President Trump gets to fight with black people, which he thinks is a great advantage politically. And, you know, [pardoning black people] is not an olive branch. This is a more opportunity to define himself.”
As for Trump’s side on the matter, the White House released a statement saying “Johnson has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has been a model prisoner over the past two decade.”
“Despite receiving a life sentence, Alice worked hard to rehabilitate herself in prison, and act as a mentor to her fellow inmates,” they added.
Trump himself wished Johnson “good luck” on Twitter:
Good luck to Alice Johnson. Have a wonderful life!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2018
Watch above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
