Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin said she believes Donald Trump deliberately used the word “rigger” as a racist signal after his indictment of Georgia.
Just hours after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis released the charges against Trump and 18 allies for conspiring to alter Georgia’s 2020 election results, Trump protested the case on his Truth Social platform.
The former president claimed to have evidence that would lead to “total exoneration of him and his allies,” adding, “They never prosecuted those who rigged the election.” They only prosecuted those who fought to find the RIGGERS!”
many of his supporters He quickly began using the term on far-right social media sites, sometimes in a derogatory manner and alluding to the racial slur.
Keith Boykin, a former White House aide to Bill Clinton, accused Trump of thinly veiled racism, writing on social media: “He wrote ‘RIGGERS’ but I don’t know what he really meant.”
Speaking of to CNN’s Jake TapperGriffin agreed with this assessment.
“With Trump, you don’t have to look for a dog whistle — it’s a bullhorn when it comes to races,” she said. “And I think that’s on purpose.”
Griffin pointed to it the “defamatory attacks” Trump has spoken out against Black Willis, adding that “he’s not really hiding that he’s going to join this element.”
She also pointed to demographics in the Atlanta courtroom, where a grand jury returned the indictment earlier this week.
“There were a lot of black men and women in that courtroom,” Griffin said. “The fact that he is including race in this prosecution surprises me. It’s disgusting. It’s textbook Donald Trump.”
Racial slurs against Willis have surged on right-wing platforms since the indictment broke Monday night. Accordingly The guardSeveral Gab posts included images of nooses and gallows and called for Willis and the jury in the case to be hanged.
There have also been death threats and calls for violence against other people involved in Trump’s four charges.
Trump’s well-known history of racist behavior stretches back decades.