Kamala Harris Says Trump Is Abusing His Power In A$AP Rocky Case
Democratic Senator Kamala Harris weighed in on Donald Trump’s attempts to intervene in rapper A$AP Rocky’s assault case in Sweden, saying that the president misused his power.
The 2020 presidential hopeful was at the annual NAACP Convention in Detroit when she was asked how she would have handled the situation if she were president, according to The Washington Times. Initially, Harris avoided addressing the question outright.
“There is no question that this White House has been playing politics with his role of leadership, and it has to end,” she said.
“We have a predator living in the White House. And the thing you got to know is that it is the nature of predators, it is their instinct and their nature to prey on those they perceive to be vulnerable, to prey on those their perceive to be weak, to prey on those who are in need of help often desperate for help,” she added.
“We have got to take this case on against Donald Trump and expose it for what it is,” the former prosecutor concluded.
Dissatisfied with Harris’ response, moderator April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, pushed the Democrat, asking her if Trump misused his power in the A$AP Rocky case.
Harris responded that she thought he was.
The American rapper was charged in Sweden on Thursday with assault for a street fight that he was reportedly involved in. The 30-year-old was in Stockholm where he got into a confrontation on June 30. A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, claims that he was defending himself during the altercation.
BREAKING: Swedish prosecutor charges rapper A$AP Rocky with assault over Stockholm fight. https://t.co/cdtokqEOzB
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 25, 2019
Video footage of the brawl shows the rapper being followed by a few men, who he eventually engaged with, throwing one to the ground before his companions kicked and punched him.
The case drew attention from across the U.S., with celebrities like Justin Bieber, Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian calling for the rapper to be released. It was the latter who urged the president to get involved in the case.
Just had a very good call with @SwedishPM Stefan Löfven who assured me that American citizen A$AP Rocky will be treated fairly. Likewise, I assured him that A$AP was not a flight risk and offered to personally vouch for his bail, or an alternative….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2019
Last week, Trump announced that he had called Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in order to help free A$AP Rocky. The backlash was swift, with critics saying that the president shouldn’t be getting involved. In particular, opponents took issue with the fact that Trump offered to pay the rapper’s bail.
The Prime Minister’s office said that A$AP Rocky wouldn’t receive special treatment and that everyone should be treated equally under the law.
