Yusef Salaam calls Donald Trump's Manhattan arraignment karma years after his full-page ad against the Exonerated Five
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After officially being declared the winner of the Harlem Democratic primary, Yusef Salaam appeared on “CNN This Morning.” Now a city council candidate, the politician spoke with the show’s hosts about the journey to his recent victory and Former President Donald Trump.
During the conversation, co-anchor Victor Blackwell asked Salaam when obtaining a political seat became his goal. “Early on, when I first read [the] scripture about a prophet named Joseph, [whom] I’m named after,” Salaam replied. “I said, ‘Is it possible?’ Of course, I was 16 at the time.” The 49-year-old speaker noted how he suppressed the thought while in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. “Years later now, I’m looking back at that journey that I’ve come through,” Salaam added. “And I’m saying to myself, ‘Wow. All of the things that happened. Every single piece. The good, the bad, [and] the ugly has prepared me for this moment right here.”
Later, the interview shifted to Trump, who took out a full-page ad calling for Salaam’s execution over 30 years ago. As REVOLT previously mentioned, the Harlem native was one of five teenagers wrongfully arrested and charged for the sexual assault of a white woman, in Central Park, in 1989. Salaam spent seven years in confinement before a judge vacated their conviction upon further review of the case.
Last month, Salaam responded to Trump’s release by taking out a full page in The New York Times. According to The Hill, the bulletin was an open letter to the Republican after a Manhattan judge arraigned Trump on 34 felony counts. “Over 30 years ago, Donald Trump took out full-page ads calling for my execution,” Salaam tweeted. “On the day he was arrested and arraigned, here is my ad in response.”
While on CNN’s show, Salaam opened up about the ads and Trump. “The Juxtaposition of being able to see here — a former president has received what I called karma in this life — it’s us being able to put the mirror up to all of us as Americans to say, ‘Hold on, if the Exonerated Five as we are now known did not get justice 34 years ago. In a country that says you’re innocent until proven guilty. In a country that says slavery is alive and sick because of the punishment of the crime. Is this going to be a moment where we will finally see justice?'”
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