Georgia Republicans Are Going After Fani Willis Because of Trump, Not Because of Her Race

Georgia's Republicans are in the process of enacting legislation which would establish a state oversight board which would have the authority to remove District Attorneys who refuse to prosecute crimes and undertake actions deemed to be political. 

Although Georgia Republicans have not explicitly singled her out, this bill does appear to be directly targeted towards Fulton County DA Fani Willis who has been investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

During a legislative hearing on the matter Willis stated, "For the hundreds of years we’ve had prosecutors, this has been unnecessary. But now all of a sudden this is a priority. And it is racist."

On this Willis is wrong.

The reason Georgia Republicans are going after Fani Willis is because her inquiry is going after defeated, former President Donald Trump. After all, it was his infamous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger demanding he overturn the election results in Georgia which precipitated this inquiry in the first place. An indictment of a former President of the United States would be "a big fucking deal", to quote President Biden's reaction to the passage of Obamacare. 

If the issue was about race, then why didn't the Georgia legislature establish such a body sooner? After all, Willis' predecessor Paul Howard, Jr., who served in that role for more than 20 years before he was defeated by Willis, is African American. 

Let me put it another way. If a white DA was pursuing Donald Trump and other Republicans for their behavior in the 2020 election, then that DA would be in the sights of Georgia Republicans too or any other state where the GOP holds a legislative majority. It is worth noting that Georgia Republicans have also passed legislation giving themselves greater immunity before grand juries just like the one Fani Willis convened. That ought to tell you everything you need to know about the motivations of Georgia Republicans where it concerns Fani Willis.

This is where Willis should laser focus her critique of Georgia Republicans. But by directing her focus instead on race, Willis will have convicted Georgia Republicans on the wrong evidence.