Nathan Deal’s lawyer: President Obama to blame for Ferguson

The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting that, in an interview with Australian news outlet SkyNews, Nathan Deal’s lawyer blames President Obama for the tragic events that have occurred in Ferguson, Missouri.

 

From the AJC:

 

A Republican National Committee member from Georgia tied the turmoil over an unarmed black man’s shooting death in Ferguson to President Barack Obama’s administration, saying the Democrat has squandered the chance to improve race relations and used minorities as little more than a “political tool.”

Randy Evans, who moonlights as Gov. Nathan Deal’s attorney, was on an Australian TV program called Contrarians last week when he was asked whether the unrest in Ferguson was touching a wider nerve in the U.S. He responded by saying many young blacks looked to Obama thinking they too could grow up to be president.

“Well that enormous opportunity kind of got squandered because literally what happened once President Obama took office, African-Americans became nothing more than a political tool – a way to drive up votes among African-American communities,” said Evans. “And I would say that over the course of his six years we probably have taken more steps backward than we have forward.”

 

This is the same lawyer who represented Deal when the then-Congressman resigned his post amid a Congressional ethics investigation (the Office of Congressional ethics found Deal guilty) and is the same lawyer who continues to represent Deal in an ongoing state ethics investigation

 

This is Nathan Deal’s lawyer. This is Nathan Deal’s Georgia. This is Georgia’s Republican Party.

 

And this is not okay.

 

This kind of behavior from Nathan Deal’s administration is unacceptable and does nothing to advance a substantive conversation about the fact that a young, unarmed African American man was shot to death by local authorities. And the remarks certainly give no comfort to a family and community that just laid that young man to rest.

 

These statements, while truly remarkable in their crassness and audacity, are not remarkable for an administration whose record contains moments like these:

 

More than four-fifths of Nathan Deal’s appointments to the state’s most powerful three boards have contributed nearly $1.3 million to Deal’s campaign and political action committee. Of the 51 positions, 43 are held by white men while only five are women and one is an African American.

Nathan Deal bragged about fighting against the Voting Rights Act.

When talking about Georgia’s discriminatory voter-ID laws, Nathan Deal refers to “ghetto grandmothers.”

Deal was among the first elected officials to question President Obama’s birth certificate.

Nathan Deal refused to endorse Wilcox, GA’s first integrated prom.

The last Legislative Report Card grade Nathan Deal received from the NAACP while he was in Congress was an “F.”

Just last week, Deal was accused of presuming an activist’s legal status based on their appearance.

 

Meanwhile, President Obama has spent his six years in the Oval Office supporting and strengthening communities. You can learn more about the Obama Administration’s accomplishments in the African American community here at WhiteHouse.gov. As Democrats, we have a lot to be proud of from our President—and his passion and commitment to fighting for all our communities, fighting for a fair and equal chance for all of our children, is a highlight.

 

Watch the SkyNews video for yourself here.

 

And if anyone in the Deal Administration is reading this—watch this video.