Trump is 'no better than the KKK' following lynching tweet, says congressman

Donald Trump has come under heavy criticism after comparing impeachment enquiries against him to a 'lynching.'

The president made the comments on Tuesday in an irate tweet claiming that if a Democrat beats him in the election that they can impeach the president "without due process or fairness or any legal rights."

There has been strong condemnation of Trump's words following the tweet but none stronger than those of Rep. Al Green of Texas's 9th congressional district.

Speaking before Congress on Tuesday, Green slammed Trump for using a word like 'lynching' without considering the context and the history of violence that it conjures up.

In a passionate speech, Green said:

How dare he do this! Does he not know the history of lynching in this country?

Does he not know that thousands of African Americans were lynched, mob violence?

Does he not know this is the equivalent of murder?

Green later went on to make reference to the Ku Klux Klan, a form of torture and terrorism that was associated with the group during their prominence in the late 19th and early 20th century.

If you continue to weaponize racism and bigotry, this makes you no better than those who were screaming ‘blood and soil,’ ‘Jews will not replace us.'

It makes you no better than those who burn crosses. It makes you no better than those who wear hoods and white robes.

House majority whip James Clyburn, who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucaus with Green also criticised Trump.

That is one word no president ought to apply to himself. I’m a product of the South. I know the history of that word. That is a word that we ought to be very, very careful about using.

However, Trump's own White House press secretary Hogan Gidley attempted to defend what the president had said claiming that he was not intending to invoke imagery of the KKK.

[He was] not comparing what’s happened to him with one of our darkest moments in American history. 

I understand that there are many people in the media who don’t agree with his language.

He has used many words to describe the way he’s been relentlessly attacked.

HT Huffington Post

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