Del. Stacey Plaskett absolutely ethered the former president's legal team for the blatant racism they showed in their defense of Trump. She was answering a question from a group of Democratic senators about the message an acquittal would send to future presidents and congresses.
Del. Plaskett planted the seed for where she was going early in her answer, by noting the horrors inflicted on the people and property in the Capitol, including the terrorizing of the police people on the right claim to revere, and the destruction of a statue of the beloved, departed Rep. John Lewis. In predicting the consequences of an acquittal, which she rightly asserted will "reverberate" into the future, she insisted that the "extremists who attacked the capitol will be emboldened. All our intelligence agencies have confirmed this. It is not House Managers saying that. They are quite literally standing by and standing ready. Donald Trump told them this is only the beginning."
It was at that point, though (around 2:24 in the video) that she went all in on Trump's "legal" team for using predominantly Black people, People of Color, and women in their amateurly-produced, fear-mongering videos of how scary and dangerous the Democrats also are.
"I'll briefly say that defense counsel's put a lot of videos out in their defense, playing clip after clip of Black women talking about fighting for a cause on an issue or a policy. It was not lost on me so many of them were People of Color and women, Black women. Black women like myself who are sick and tired of being sick and tired for our children. Your children, our children," she said. Continuing to call them out, she said, "This summer some things happened that were violent, but there were also things that gave us Black women great comfort. Seeing Amish people from Pennsylvania standing up with us, members of Congress fighting with us, and so I thought we were past that. I think maybe we're not."
Finishing her salvo, she said, "There are long-standing consequences, decisions like this that will define who we are as a people, who America is. We have in this room made monumental decisions. You all have made monumental decisions. We have declared wars, passed civil rights acts, ensured that no one in this country is a slave," she said. "Every American has the right to vote, unless you live in a territory. At this time some of these decisions are even controversial, but history has shown that they define us as a country and as a people. Today is one of those moments and history will wait for our decision."
It was blazing and perfect, a well-deserved call-out. She made it even better by reminding everyone that she and the people she represent still don't actually even have the right to vote, living in a territory. This woman knows how to throw down a gauntlet.
What would have been even NICER would have been for a white senator or House Manager to call out the Trump team's racism, so that Del. Plaskett wouldn't have had to.
Regardless of who points out the blatant bigotry, these spineless Republicans will STILL vote to acquit. See, they're here for that racism. That's the whole problem.
