Washington - The mayor of Salem lashed out at Donald Trump on
Tuesday, telling him to "learn some history," after the US president
compared the impeachment process against him to the 17th century
Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.
In a seething six-page letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,
Trump blasted the impeachment process as a "hoax," saying that "more
due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials."
Trump's reference to the 1692 witch hunt in the then-colony of
Massachusetts prompted an equally scathing response from Salem's
mayor Kim Driscoll.
"Learn some history," Driscoll wrote on Twitter. The witch hunt
trials were conducted with the "absence of evidence" in which
"innocent victims were hanged or pressed to death," she said.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukrainegate?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ukrainegate2019 = ample evidence, admissions of wrongdoing+perpetrators are among the most powerful+privileged
Kim Driscoll, Mayor of Salem, MA https://t.co/AFR14jLktU
— Kim Driscoll (@MayorDriscoll)
The mass hysteria that gripped the community of Salem in 1692 led to
scores of people being jailed for witchcraft.
Nineteen people were hanged and their bodies tossed into a shallow
grave, while an elderly man who refused to plead was crushed to death
under stones.
"This situation is much different than the plight of the witch trial
victims," Driscoll wrote. "A dubious legal process that bears no
relation to televised impeachment."
Right, will they ever learn some history? This situation is much different than the plight of the witch trial victims, who were convicted using spectral evidence + then brutally hanged or pressed to death. A dubious legal process that bears no relation to televised impeachment. https://t.co/EVGvzbr3UN
— Kim Driscoll (@MayorDriscoll) December 17, 2019
Driscoll added that there was "ample evidence" in the impeachment
case against Trump in which she said the "perpetrators are among the
most powerful+privileged."
She then tweeted a link to a book on the history of the Salem witch
trials, suggesting that Trump add it to his "holiday shopping list."
My suggested holiday shopping list for POTUS...https://t.co/cHIj2CHmy4 pic.twitter.com/TUDmu9jwoG
— Kim Driscoll (@MayorDriscoll) December 17, 2019
US lawmakers are due to convene on Wednesday to start impeachment
proceedings against Trump, with the House of Representatives expected
to approve two articles of impeachment.
Democrats accuse the president of abusing his office by soliciting
Ukraine to dig up dirt on his political rival Joe Biden and
withholding military aid as a means to achieve that goal. He is also
alleged to have obstructed Congress's investigation of the affair.