Jeffrey Toobin Says Trump's Pardons Are Just 'Theater': He Still Wants 'To Fight With Black People

[.99center]

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.”
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnns-jeffrey-toobin-says-trumps-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.”

[gratuitous]

1. Trump's pardons of non-celebrities, like everything else in his administration, is all about him

There's the big fanfare, "Trump the Benevolent" vibe, and naturally there has to be some star power oomph, like a Kardashian involved. He also doesn't go through the usual review by the Justice Department, he just announces a pardon when he needs to goose his popularity or get a positive headline to distract from the latest atrocity clattering out of the closet into the public eye.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. pardons are about feeding Trump's bloated and damaged ego.

[Backwoodsrider]

3. Trump doing what he can to control the days news coverage

And news folk like Toobin have no problem helping Trump do just that.

[.99center]

5. What?

I think you're mistaken Toobin for another anchor.

[eleny]

4. If he was willing to pardon Ali then why the beef with Colin Kaepernick's protest?

It's all bs.

[MariaCSR]

8. I'm going to tweet that, thank you.

[eleny]

9. Good

Post the link to your tweet and I'll retweet it.

[Orsino]

6. Toobin deliberately overlooks the pardons as obstruction of justice.

Trump only discovered the power when Mueller started closing in.

[radius777]

7. all about appeasing the conscience of white moderates

who may otherwise feel racist to vote GOP in the midterms.. he did same thing in 2016 by talking in front of a few (staged) non-white audiences... "See, we really do try to help them PoC.."

He'll be back to his deplorable self in a few days, they just need some material they can make into an ad they can sell to swing districts.