TPM
The District Attorney And Race
The smoldering confrontation in an Atlanta courtroom between District Attorney Fani Willis and the coterie of Trump co-defendants had so many layers of gender, race, and power dynamics that it felt like a theatrical production in which the playwright got a little too exuberant and ended up with an over-the-top script.
Any playwright would die for Willis’ meme-a-minute dialogue, throwing off lines so memorable and original that it was hard to keep up:
“A man is not a plan.”
“I’m not going to emasculate a black man.” (Oh, but she did.)
“I’m not a hand holder.”
Willis: Let’s go on and have a conversation. I don’t need anything from a man. A man is not a plan. A man is a companion. I don’t need anybody to foot my bills. The only man who has foot my bills completely is my daddy. pic.twitter.com/721zUSUCex
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 15, 2024
The hearing was ostensibly about whether her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to manage the RICO election interference case was disqualifying. But that was a thin veil over the roiling cauldron of disrespect, racist tropes, and public humiliation that the defendants were indulging in.
Willis came in red hot, literally running from her office to the courtroom when it was her time to testify. She took over the room. She raised and waived objections from the witness chair. She refused to be led down primrose paths by defense counsel. She talked over everyone: defense counsel, the judge, and her own team. I couldn’t help but think that Trump himself would secretly admire her command and bravura.
But it wasn’t the performative high dudgeon that Bill Clinton patented and every politican since has doubled down with. It was the seething, barely controlled anger of a Black woman put in a position none of her white male counterparts have had to endure, at the hands of a criminal defendant no less. White prosecutors have used the power of the law to torment Black people for centuries, but a Black woman becomes prosecutor and finds herself tormented by white criminal defendants.
The most telling moment of the day for me came midway through her testimony, when Rudy Giuliani’s local attorney Allyn Stockton took his turn. He politely introduced himself to Willis and addressed her as “Madam District Attorney” and “Madam DA.” It was a modicum of respect. It was properly deferential to her position and role. Don’t be confused: He was adverse to her, and he proceeded to go after her, in a measured and professional way. But that show of cordiality and basic respect seemed to me to make Willis’ face relax, her body language loosen, her volume go down, and transformed her argumentativeness into a more conversational tone. He gave her deference she had earned, deserved, and was demanding for herself.
I personally think Willis erred by becoming involved with Wade. It put the prosecution of her career at risk. Maybe that would be the conversation to have if white male DAs who boink people in their office were dragged into court by criminal defendants on the regular. Not saying it’s never happened, but I’ve never seen it.
Most of the news coverage elided the racial and gender power dynamics at play. But Black people recognize this modern day spectacle of demeaning and dehumanizing treatment: Willis’ personal life scrutinized, her sex life exposed to public ridicule, her ways of handling money and relationships treated not as a difference of culture or social class but as unethical and disqualifying. And racists recognize it, too! Fox News was beside itself with the spectacle. To take one example, actually just one word: “pedigree.”
Watters claims ‘These cartoon characters don’t have the pedigree to be in the same courtroom as the former president.’ pic.twitter.com/Ub2mF8Hfuj
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 16, 2024
If Black people know what’s going on here and racists know what’s going on here, then why is everyone else content to leave their heads in the sand?
What Happens Next
The Georgia hearing continues today. Willis is due to continue her testimony, but I’ll be curious to see if her team declines to ask her any questions given her strong performance yesterday and instead just proceed straight to its case.
As for the judge, I suspect he’s looking for any way not to disqualify her. She’s the elected DA! Her office handles thousands of criminal cases a year. Judges don’t want to open the door to criminal defendants seeking to delve into the personal propriety of the prosecutor. It would be a nightmare beyond this historically important case…
