‘It is high time that…the race card by politicians of all stripes be made to cease and desist…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) George Zimmerman is suing Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg for making defamatory comments about him regarding Trayvon Martin’s death, according to Newsweek.
In his lawsuit, Zimmerman says Warren and Buttigieg falsely tied him to “white supremacy” and “racism,” pointing to two tweets the candidates released on Martin’s birthday.
My heart goes out to @SybrinaFulton and Trayvon’s family and friends. He should still be with us today.
We need to end gun violence and racism. And we need to build a world where all of our children—especially young Black boys—can grow up safe and free. https://t.co/9lXXlRnvzL
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 6, 2020
Trayvon Martin would have been 25 today.
How many 25th birthdays have been stolen from us by white supremacy, gun violence, prejudice, and fear?#BlackLivesMatter
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 5, 2020
Though the details of the case still remain unclear, the jury sided with Zimmerman, who said 17-year-old Martin had attacked him in Miami Gardens after Zimmerman reported him to the police as a suspicious figure.
By attributing Martin’s death to “fear” and “gun violence,” Zimmerman’s lawyers argued that Buttigieg and Warren attempted to push a “political agenda to garner votes in the black community.”
“The only ‘fear’ Zimmerman experienced, as established in the 2013 trial and well-covered in the media, was in the context of Zimmerman believing he might go unconscious and die from the repeated beating of his head against the sidewalk pavement or by choking to death from the blood going down his throat due to his broken nose during the beating by Martin,” the lawsuit states.
Zimmerman’s attorney, Larry Klayman, said it’s time Democratic candidates stop using “despicable ‘race tactics,’’ which cause “great harm” to individuals like Zimmerman and “image relations between black and white Americans who are all brothers.”
“It is high time that the cheap and harmful use of the race card by politicians of all stripes be made to cease and desist,” Klayman said in a statement. “The nation should applaud Mr. Zimmerman for taking a strong stand and pushing back against hack politicians like Buttigieg and Warren, who know no bounds of decency and frankly could obviously care less about whom they hurt in their quest to dishonesty use and manipulate black voters to win the 2020 Democrat presidential primary.”