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Black America’s Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was decisively clear in her comments on CNN’s State of the Union series regarding the slaying of the 25-year-old jogger, Ahmaud Arbery.
In an interview with Jake Trapper, Bottoms made the disturbing remark, “It’s 2020 and this was a lynching of an African American man.”
READ MORE: Black district attorney to take over Ahmaud Arbery case
The Feb. 23 slaying of Arbery has drawn national criticism after the gruesome footage of the killing came to light. Outrage from the footage prompted an official investigation from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation leading to the arrest of Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael.
The two were arrested for murder 74 days after the tragic killing. When asked by Trapper if she believed the video had anything to do with their arrest, she vehemently agreed.
“I think that’s absolutely the reason that they were charged. I think had we not seen that video, I don’t believe that they would be charged,” Bottoms said in response to the viral video.
“It’s heartbreaking that it’s 2020 and this was a lynching of an African American man,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says about the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. https://t.co/GGX09XO2Ra #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/GiEUoqozF0
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 10, 2020
Bottoms also seemed to place blame for the murder at the feet of the current President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
“With the rhetoric, we hear coming out of the White House in so many ways, I think that many who are prone to being racist are given permission to do it in an overt way that we otherwise would not see in 2020,” she said. “In cities across this country, even if local leadership fails, there was always the backstop of our Justice Department to step in and make sure people are appropriately prosecuted. But we don’t have that leadership at the top right now. It’s disheartening.”
Mayor Bottoms has garnered national attention during the coronavirus pandemic. The mayor publicly opposed the decision of Governor Brian Kemp to make Georgia one of the first states to reopen amid the pandemic.
READ MORE: Atlanta mayor says son also received racist text: ‘White supremacy is a sickness’
She has largely been lauded for her efforts in continuing to try to keep Georgia’s largest city safe. In an exclusive interview with Atlanta’s CBS affiliate, CBS46, the mayor talked about potentially passing an ordinance requiring mask usage in Georgia’s largest city.
“I think there are a number of things that we could have and perhaps should have done that would have been a little more considerate of where we are with this pandemic,” Bottoms says, clarifying that the governor does not agree with her on the mask ordinance, “we’ve seen push back on people wearing masks and I do know that is one of his concerns.”