Trump is confronted in the spin room of a debate by a member of the “Central Park Five,” whose execution he called for
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You can bet that Donald Trump was not prepared for this particular confrontation.
On the sidelines of his first and possibly only debate against Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, the former president faced none other than Yusef Salaam on Tuesday.
Salaam is a member of the “Central Park Five” – a group of black and Hispanic youths whose execution Trump once called for for a crime of which they were later acquitted.
The confrontation occurred following the debate between Trump and Harris on Tuesday night, when the former president made a surprise appearance in the Spin Room of the Pennsylvania Convention Center – a room where his and Harris’ assembled surrogates were explaining why their respective candidates were the rightful winners of the debate.
Trump likely expected to answer another question from a reporter, but instead he found himself facing Salaam, now an elected member of the New York City Council, who had joined the flock of reporters surrounding the former president. Salaam, a Democrat, was one of many allies on Harris’ campaign team scheduled for interviews with the press after the debate.
As the former president turned to face Salaam, he was asked by several reporters, including NBC’s Peter Alexander, if he would apologize or say anything at all to Salaam.
It wasn’t clear if Trump immediately understood why Salaam was there, but he grinned and pointed at him, quipping, “That’s good, you’re on my side!”
Salaam, obviously stunned, laughed along with some of the reporters around him.
“No, no, I am not on your side!” Salaam replied.
The former president then waved and stepped back to answer questions from reporters standing further away.
It was a harrowing moment that shines a light on the small world of U.S. politics — which, even at the national level, is often smaller than most people realize.
The moment was particularly shocking because Trump had just been criticized by his opponent for calling for the execution of Salaam and four others based on false accusations. In a skeptical-sounding response, Trump seemed to simply acknowledge that the accusations had been retracted.
In that response, Trump accused Democrats of dredging up old baggage to attack him and dismissed Salaam’s importance to his campaign because then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg “agreed” with his assessment of the case. Bloomberg, a Democrat, blocked a multimillion-dollar settlement related to Salaam’s prosecution.
“Many people, including Mayor Bloomberg, agreed with me about the Central Park Five,” Trump said during his debate with Harris.
The vice president, meanwhile, argued that it was “a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president but has, throughout his career, repeatedly tried to divide the American people over the issue of race.”
