During a Michigan Advance interview this week, Detroit NAACP President Wendell Anthony called for the immediate ousting of President Donald Trump following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to stop the 2020 presidential election from being certified for President-elect Joe Biden.
Members of the mob waved Confederate flags in the building and donned anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi paraphernalia, like with the phrase “6MWE,” meaning 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust wasn’t enough.
“We just want his ass out,” Anthony said Friday, pointing out that the national NAACP has called for a second Trump impeachment.
Democrats are circulating an impeachment resolution in the U.S. House, with progressives like U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) pushing for a quick vote before Trump leaves office.
“I am ready to impeach him again,” Tlaib wrote on Twitter Friday.
Democrats unveil resolution to impeach Trump, fearing self-pardon
All nine Democratic members of Congress from Michigan back Trump’s removal, either via the 25th Amendment or impeachment.
Anthony also spoke to what he believes to be a double standard in law enforcement reaction to the white mob at the U.S. Capitol and Black demonstrators. There were hundreds of largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests over police brutality last summer in which police routinely used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters and media.
“America seems to be more concerned about Black folks who take a knee peacefully on a football field, than they are about white folks who take over the Congress violently on Capitol Hill,” said Anthony, referring the controversy involving former National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who publicly protested against police brutality against Blacks before games in 2016 and has not played in the league since.
In the wee hours of Thursday morning, Congress confirmed Biden’s victory over Trump. That was only after pro-Trump mob stormed the nation’s Capitol in a riot that resulted in several deaths, including a protester who was fatally shot and Capitol police officer who died after confrontation with demonstrators. Most of the rioters were white. All 1,500 Capitol police were reportedly on duty but were clearly outnumbered by protesters. The force, according to the Hill, turned down offers for support from the National Guard and the FBI to help manage the incident.
Study: 97% of Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful in Michigan
Anthony, who has led the NAACP’s largest branch since 1993, also pointed out that Black Lives Matter demonstrators have been arrested in several American cities, including Detroit, and have been verbally assailed by Trump and others for being violent or lawless.
“This separate and unequal treatment of nonviolent protesters vs. violent insurrectionists mocks the very definition of equal treatment under law,” said Anthony.
In July, Trump called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate.” He also went after New York Bill DeBlasio over a “Black Lives Matter” sign on the street.
“NYC is cutting Police $’s by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the @NYCMayor is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “This will further antagonize New York’s Finest.”
Trump’s Twitter account was permanently suspended on Friday.
Meanwhile, Trump spoke to a crowd of supporters on Wednesday demonstrating against the Electoral College vote count and recounted more conspiracy theories, lying again that he won.
U.S. Capitol on lockdown after pro-Trump crowd storms inside
“You’re strong, you’re smarter … you’re the real people,” Trump said. “You’re the people that built this nation. You’re not the people that tore down this nation.”
The Republican urged them to march to the Capitol, saying he’d join them, which he didn’t. After the armed insurrection of his supporters on Wednesday, Trump told them, “We love you. You’re very special.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime national civil rights leader and Rainbow PUSH Coalition founder, told ABC-7 in Chicago that Trump bears responsibility for the insurrection.
“He has encouraged this behavior. He never challenges them,” he said.
At a press conference on Friday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer agreed with Anthony’s position on how Blacks and Browns have been treated in protests in comparison to whites.
“Had the group of people who stormed our nation’s Capitol been Black Lives Matter protesters, it’s logical to conclude they would have been treated very differently,” she said.
