North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop (R) compared former President Trump’s current legal situation to that of a Black person in the segregated South.
“It’s as bad as it was in Alabama in 1950 … if a person happened to be Black, in order to get justice,” Bishop said Monday on “The Pete Kaliner Show” on Charlotte radio station WBT. “And that’s what they did in New York. So it was fundamentally rigged, and the people who attacked me for saying so can attack all they want.”
The former president became the first former U.S. president to be convicted in criminal court Thursday, when a jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made during his 2016 campaign to keep quiet alleged affairs.
Referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and special counsel Jack Smith, Bishop said, “Ultimately, these folks are doing things — they’re using power in a way that they know is wrong, or they have no excuse for not knowing it, and they should be prosecuted for their interference with the election.”
Bishop, a candidate for North Carolina attorney general, also commented Friday on the Trump verdict in posts on the social platform X.
“Election interference to ‘get Trump,’” Bishop said in one of the posts. “It’s never been about justice – it’s about rigging and weaponizing our justice system against anyone who threatens their grip on power. We must end the leftist lawfare in November.”
Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-N.C.), who is running against Bishop to become the Tar Heel State’s attorney general, shot back at Bishop in his own post on X.
“This is my opponent for Attorney General. He immediately dismisses 34 unanimous verdicts by a jury as ‘rigged,’” Jackson said in his response. “He’s never been a prosecutor – and it shows. Disagreeing with a jury is one thing, but saying the whole thing is rigged is dishonest and destructive.”
The Hill has reached out to Bishop’s office and campaign for comment.