On Monday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka responded to a question on whether video from the Newark ICE facility shows violence against law enforcement by saying there’s “a lot of pushing and shoving” but we’re only seeing part of the video and the full video will vindicate Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ).
Baraka began by saying, “I think the congresspeople went there to do their job, to have oversight. I think, ultimately, this is not about even what happened there. It’s about a fight in this country about due process and the Constitution of the United States. I think there are some people who believe they can do what they want to do and violate people’s rights and their due process and that people who are trying to provide oversight — and it’s causing conflict in this. I didn’t see any of the things that were stated. I didn’t see any of those things happen. So, I think that the Congresswoman will be vindicated, and the videos are clear. Everybody can see those videos. You’ll see the whole thing. And it’ll be clear to me and it’ll be clear to her in court.”
CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Bush official Scott Jennings then asked, “The videos are pretty clear, are they not? She’s shoving, elbows, some punch[es]. This is violent activity against law enforcement, is it not?”
Baraka answered, “It’s a lot of pushing and shoving. I don’t know if, uh –.”
Jennings then cut in to ask if a regular person would get away with doing that, and host Abby Phillip cut in to give her own answer.
Later, Baraka stated that there wasn’t an attack on officers and “I think the video will play itself out. We’ll see the entire video, when the case comes, and people look at the video, they’ll see what happened. Right now, people are speaking about a small segment of the video that they’ve seen that [is] being played over and over and over again on repeat.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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