‘I thought we were past that’: Trump’s impeachment lawyers accused of singling out Black women

Race has played a subtle but present role in shaping impeachment arguments on both sides

Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyers singled out comments from women of colour about police brutality protests and painted them as dangerous during their arguments on Friday, impeachment prosecutors argued.

“What’s not lost on me was so many of them were people of colour and women and black women,” said impeachment manager Stacey Plaskett, who represents the US Virgin Islands. “Black women like myself who are sick and tired of being sick and tired for our children, your children, our children."

The former president’s legal team used video montages as evidence, which overlayed out-of-context statements from Black women like vice-president Kamala Harris and congresswoman Ayanna Pressley with violent scenes from last summer’s largely peaceful police brutality protests.

In one clip, set to ominous, movie trailer-style music, Ms Pressley says, “There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.”

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In another, vice-president Harris tells late night host Stephen Colbert, “They’re not gonna stop, and everyone beware, because they’re not gonna stop," before the film cuts to a man lying face down in the street, being kicked in the face.

Far from encouraging violence, both women have condemned the violence that sometimes occurred at last summer’s police brutality protests, which were overwhelmingly peaceful.

“I thought we were past that,” Ms Plaskett said. “I think maybe we’re not.”

Impeachment managers also argued the president’s supporters were racist, citing racial slurs endured by Black officers guarding the Capitol during the riots, where attackers included white supremacists,  wore Confederate flags and neo-Nazi apparel. 

“Afterwards, overwhelmed by emotion, he broke down in the rotunda. And he cried for 15 minutes,” House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said, referring to one Black officer there that day.

During his time as president, Mr Trump singled out prominent women of colour for especially harsh and oftentimes racist treatment while in office, such as telling members of “The Squad” – a progressive group of congresswomen of color comprising Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ms Pressley – to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

He also called various female journalists of colour “stupid” and a “loser.”