contributor and the washington post political reporter wesley lowery, and former wide receiver for the new england patriots donte stallworth. do donte is working with lawmakers on criminal law issues. wes you heard the president was just kidding don t protect suspects heads when you put them into the police car, let them bang their heads, what did you think? well, i think that in some ways, the white house believes saying hey, this was just a joke is a means of dismissing this, but i actually think him joking about this may be just as bad, if not worst, if this had been some earnest statement. the reality is large swathes of the population, tons of americans and police will say this, who have distrust of police officers who have experiences which they believe they ve been abused and assaulted, mistreated, so that the commander in chief of the
united states of america would i think that s something appropriate to joke about, you know, i think really raises eyebrows for a lot of folks. beyond that, you ve got an attorney general, jeff sessions, who has insisted that he is going to be serious about police officers who do the wrong thing. he has this reputation that he s going to be a little too soft on police. he s gotten some criticism about some of the things he said, the doj may no longer be investigating police departments and his department has sworn up and down no, no, no, we ll be tough an bad cops and to have his boss come out joking in front of a room full of police officers about assaulting suspects, undermines everything that the trump administration s tried to insist to reporters like myself, when we ve asked them, hey, are you still going to hold police accountable. donte , you ve had experiences on both sides of the criminal justice system. you served time for a fatal drunk driving accident and then you recentl
arrested. he even denied a plea deal offered to him, his family and friends have recently presented nearly 80,000 signatures on a petition asking for his release. and this month the county district attorney announced they re conducting another investigation into the case that led to donte s conviction. joining me now, cdonte s mother and an attorney with the advancement project who is helping the family in the case, and the former president of north carolina naacp chapter. now the president of repairers of the breach, and a pastor of green leaf christian church of disciples of christ in north carolina. reverend, you brought this to me attention. i m going to be joining you down there on this case. what spoke to your heart that
and it s absurd on its face and ignores a quarter century of progress in this city bringing down crime. i would like to think of myself as a pretty common measured person and i think i present myself that way. but when i read that statement by doj this afternoon, my blood began to boil. ed: is he a cop s cop i know jim o neil. kind of what you said a moment ago which is right on point. this is shiftingth top ping. there is no way you can make the case credibly that jeff sessions and attorney general re anti-cop. connell: says the numbers are down wants to make the point. can i understand his point on that. ed: bill de blasio? abby: talk about words matter? let s think back on the words bill mayor has said talking about the police in his own city? take a listen. this is back in 2014. i ve had to worry over the years, have to worry was donte
kids. a lot of times kids don t take these resources and use them to their benefit. with aaron, i don t feel that people weren t stepping up for him and telling him that he was in the wrong or doing things wrong. i m sure his agent i know him very well was probably on him for whatever he was doing that wasn t necessarily in line with the fnfl player but you probabl hid what he was doing because no one really thought of him as a killer. i ll tell you, our office was looking at him to represent him probably eight months before all of this happened and we had no knowledge of a character flaw like that. so, you know, it s one of those things that players like that are few and far between, you know, obviously. but they do exist and it s unfortunate because sometimes they re such chamelians. denise, donte, thank you. appreciate it. when we come back, i ll speak to two journalists who say hillary clinton s campaign was