For the third time this week, the president is railing against New York State Attorney General Letitia James. It seems like no matter what Trump does, though, his zingers just aren’t landing. This time, Trump complained to the press pool that James’ campaign while running for New York Attorney General was “illegal.” Trump wrote, “She campaigned on, ‘I’m gonna get Trump, I’m gonna get Trump.’ She never knew me, I never met her, I don’t know who she is. But her whole campaign was that — and that’s illegal, you’re not allowed to do that, she knew nothing about me.”
POTUS on @TishJames, per pool: “She campaigned on, ‘I’m gonna get Trump, I’m gonna get Trump.’ She never knew me, I never met her, I don’t know who she is. But her whole campaign was that — and that’s illegal, you’re not allowed to do that, she knew nothing about me.”
— Emily Ngo (@epngo) July 5, 2019
Reactions to Trump’s claims have been swift and merciless.
Kind of a bizarre critique of NY AG Letitia James from candidate who ran on ‘lock her up’ https://t.co/osdbpvZZcx
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 5, 2019
From a man that has spent the past three years leading “Lock her up” chants at his campaign rallies. –> Irony is dead.
— Diana Prince (@Diana_E_Prince) July 5, 2019
New York State, generally — and Letitia James specifically — have been on Trump’s mind quite a lot this week. Trump’s comments to reporters Friday came in the wake of recent Twitter-feuding between POTUS and James. Much of what Trump’s railed against in a series of anti-New York tweets, however, is demonstrably false. Noteworthy among those falsehoods is Trump’s claim that New York’s efforts to take down his foundation have been, “going on for years, originally brought by Crooked Hillary’s Campaign Chair, A.G. Eric Schneiderman, until forced to resign for abuse against women.”
Schneiderman was in fact not Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair (that was John Podesta). Schneiderman was on Clinton’s “New York Leadership Council” — but so were over 100 other people. While we’re on the topic of who did what, plans to investigate and potentially prosecute Donald Trump hardly originated with Letitia James. James’ predecessor, Barbara Underwood, was quite public about her plans to take down the Trumps for state-level wrongdoing when the time was right. The New York State Legislature even amended its laws to ensure Trump could be prosecuted for state-level offenses even after escaping (or being pardoned for) federal ones.
Some have speculated that Trump’s recent fixation on James stems from advance knowledge of impending charges about to come his way from New York State.
Is it me or is something BIG about to drop on Trump? #RICO #Indictments
— Hunter Cullen (@HCullen98) July 1, 2019
Now Donald Trump is scared because New York Attorney General Letitia James has the bravery to confront the Trump crime family and hold them accountable to the law. All their shady business dealings, tax evasion, and fraud should be fully examined and investigated.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 1, 2019
It’s rather odd that he’s suddenly tweeting about his foundation when he agreed to dissolve it in December, don’t you think?
Must be something new about to drop.— D Villella ❄️ (@dvillella) July 1, 2019
While Trump may only have just recently become familiar with Tish James, the rest of New York has known her for quite a while.
Tish James was NYC Public Advocate beginning in 2014, back when he was working in New York. He didn’t know who she was even though she held citywide office?
— Martin Samoylov (@martin_samoylov) July 5, 2019
[Image via MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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