From the pandemic to the economy, and to the elections, another issue that is currently being discussed is the murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. President Donald Trump recently commented on the incident and expressed that it was a horrible thing to happen.
During the latest White House conference, Trump was pressed on the issue of the murder of Arbery, who was shot and killed by two white men in Georgia; father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael. Trump said that he is waiting for updates and results of the investigations. The President said that he is speaking to some people regarding the incident, including Black Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who expressed how disturbed he was upon seeing the video of the shooting that went viral.
This was a change in tone following his previous remarks about the video over the weekend. Trump faced backlash after saying that something may have happened off-screen that would result in the shooting. However, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms described the murder as “lynching” and noted that Trump’s past remarks about immigrants as well as white supremacists have only fueled the rampant racism in the country.
Since then, the father and son McMichaels are now charged with murder and aggravated assault. The state prosecutors are now reviewing the case, including how the two were only arrested over two months since the incident. Federal officials are also looking into the case with the possibility of the shooting being a hate crime and are investigating the way the state officials have investigated the case.
Aside from Arbery’s murder, Trump continued to accuse his predecessor, President Barack Obama of a crime he referred to as “Obamagate” and has constantly used the term on social media. Following his tweet accusing Obama of what he described as the biggest political crime in the country’s history, Philip Rucker of The Washington Post pressed Trump to specify what crime his predecessor committed and should the Department of Justice have him prosecuted.
Trump appeared to generalize in response. “You know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours.” He then added that they will see more about the supposed “Obamagate” over the next few weeks and that he wished the media wrote honestly about it.