Kim Driscoll (D), the mayor of Salem, Massachusetts, happens to know a thing or two about witch trials.
Apparently deciding that “witch hunt” no longer sufficiently encapsulated his suffering at the hands of the impeachment process, President Donald Trump howled in an unhinged letter on Tuesday that “more due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials” than to him.
To Driscoll, the comparison was flawed, to say the least.
“Learn some history,” she tweeted Tuesday in response to Trump’s comment.
The mayor pointed out that, unlike Trump, the victims who were gruesomely killed in 1692 Salem witch trials were powerless and underprivileged. And unlike those victims, Trump has plenty of evidence of wrongdoing against him.
Driscoll shredded Trump’s “offensive” comparison again several hours later in a CNN interview.
“I mean the whole point of the witch trials is there was no rule of law, and you’re talking about very marginalized people who were accused, these victims,” the mayor told CNN host Don Lemon. “They were women. They were elderly. They were poor. Anyone who was different or odd in any way, shape, or form.”
“Versus 2019: we’ve got expressions of wrongdoing, we’ve got transcripts, we’ve got a rule of law,” she continued. “In fact, the most important rule of law — the Constitution of the United States — that’s serving as a guide.”
“The witch trials were a lesson that, if anything, is going to inform how this President will, in fact, receive a very fair trial and inquiry process,” Driscoll added.
Watch the mayor below:
Mayor of Salem slams Trump’s “offensive” comparisons to witch hunts and trials. pic.twitter.com/tlX3uy3U32
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 18, 2019