Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has an apparent tendency of ascribing race-based antipathies to her critics. Willis leaned once more into the trend when campaigning for re-election on “The Rachel Maddow Show” Monday, while also casting doubt on the legitimacy of her scrutineers.
Willis questions elected officials’ legitimacy
The titular talking head of the MSNBC show cited a
recent op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution penned by three Democratic lawmakers in Georgia, which suggested that the recent efforts to hold Willis accountable for alleged misconduct are instead an effort to “tarnish Willis’ reputation, delegitimize the judicial process and the rule of law, and distract from the substantive facts of the case.”
The op-ed also called the allegations so far raised against Willis “dubious,” despite even Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee
acknowledging the Democratic prosecutor’s “bad choices,” her “tremendous lapse in judgment,” her “legally improper” remarks, and her prosecutions’ encumbrance “by an appearance of impropriety.”
Maddow said, “This strikes me very close to my heart because I feel like this is one of the first times I’ve seen people stand up for you on this point.”
Maddow then asked Willis whether she agreed with her fellow Democrats’ assessment that she was a noble victim.
“Well, as you know — let’s start with the federal government and Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan has time after time after time attacked my office with no legitimate purpose,” said Willis. “Anyone who knows Jim Jordan’s history knows that he only has the purpose of trying to interfere in a criminal investigation.”
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.)
launched a legitimate inquiry into the alleged collusion between Willis and the Jan. 6 Committee in December 2023.
Willis, facing off Tuesday against fellow leftist Christian Wise Smith in the Democratic primary, told Maddow that she has complied with subpoenas from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, even though she reportedly
dragged her feet on producing requested documents regarding her office’s use of federal funds in March, such that Jordan felt compelled to threaten her with contempt of Congress.
Willis, whose supporters concern-mongered in the Journal-Constitution about delegitimizing efforts, said Jordan was “illegitimate in his position and it’s disgusting.”
‘They are trying to attack me at every level.’
“Now at the state level, they’ve decided to follow this clown’s lead,” continued Willis. “And they want to now try to interfere in an investigation and it’s not legitimate either.”
Contrary to Willis’ suggestion, the Georgia Senate Special Committee is also legitimate, having been
approved by the democratically elected members of the Georgia state Senate in January and tasked with investigating Willis for possible misconduct.
“They are trying to attack me at every level,” said Willis, before launching into a brief campaign speech and preemptively belittling the Republican candidate for the DA’s post, Courtney Kramer.
Maddow thanked Willis for dealing with “slings and arrows.”
‘Racially charged’
Extra to casting doubt on the legitimacy of official investigations, Willis insinuated criticism of her was racially motivated.
“Georgia had never had a prosecutorial oversight committee,” Willis told Rachel Maddow. “All of a sudden, 14 minorities were elected to office to serve as district attorney. And now all of a sudden they need an oversight committee to look after district attorneys because they want to tell us how to prosecute and who to prosecute and where we should put our resources, as opposed to allowing the voters that put us in these seats to make those determinations.”
‘But apparently we now need daddy to tell us how to do our job.’
“Most of the population has elected these minority DAs to serve them and has trusted their judgment,” continued Willis. “But apparently we now need daddy to tell us how to do our job.”
Willis made a similar claim earlier this month,
telling reporters, “Isn’t it interesting when we got a bunch of African American DAs, now we need a daddy to tell us what to do?”
Willis’ intimation that race played a factor in the formation of the oversight committee is hardly the first time she has projected racism where there was ostensibly none.
Earlier this year, Steve Sadow, the lead lawyer for former President Donald Trump in his Georgia election interference case, pressed Willis’ team after they failed to respond to his emails. Daysha Young, an executive district attorney in Fulton County, initially
responded by writing that she and Willis “are both aware, especially as an African American woman some find it difficult to treat us respectfully.”
Sadow said Young’s comments were “offensive, uncalled for and untrue.”
Willis weighed into the email chain saying, “In the legal community (and the world at large) some people will never be able to respect African Americans and/or women as their equal and counterpart.”
“Some are so used to doing it they are not even aware they are doing it while others are intentional in their continued disrespect,” added Willis.
Blaze News
previously reported that in a Jan. 14 address to a congregation at Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Willis suggested that critiques of her leadership and hiring decisions were motivated not by concerns over fairness, lawfulness, or conflicts of interest but by hate — specifically, racial animus.
“They call me the N-word more than they call me Fani,” said Willis. “[God,] you did not tell me as a woman of color it would not matter what I did. My motive, my talent, my ability, and my character would be constantly attacked.”
According to Willis, those who criticized her appointing her lover as special prosecutor in the Trump case were “playing the race card.”
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