Jacob Blake continues his recovery in the hospital after being shot seven times in the back by Kenosha, Wisconsin police. Officer Rusten Sheskey has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. The shooting prompted a renewal of racial justice protests that have included all kinds of right-wing racist attacks on protesters as police and our current White House angle to point the finger at outlier violence while condoning violent murders by white supremacist vigilantes.
Jacob Blake Sr., Jacob Blake’s father, came on CNN Monday, August 31, 2020, along with the family attorney Benjamin Crump, to discuss his son and the strange cowardice of Donald Trump. Trump has yet to speak with the Blake family. According to his father, Blake seems to be getting better, but unfortunately, he remains paralyzed from the waist down. When asked about Donald Trump’s statement that he hadn’t wanted to be on the phone with the Blake family while their family lawyer was also on the phone, but that Trump had spoken with “the family pastor,” Blake Sr. had this to say: “First of all, I’m not going to play politics. This is my son’s life we’re talking about. Second of all, we don’t have a family pastor.”
When pressed by the CNN host on what or who Trump was talking about, Blake Sr. explained: “I don’t know who he talked to. Furthermore, I don’t care who he talked to,” saying that unless Trump spoke with the Blake family’s lawyer, there is no other person outside of Jacob Blake Sr. and Jr. who Trump should be talking to. This, of course, is no surprise, as Trump has long lied through his teeth, even when his lies have been very easily verifiable as factually incorrect.
On Sunday, Lara Trump—probably Eric’s wife—told Fox News Sunday that the Trump administration had reached out to set up a conversation with the Blake family. This was news to the Blake family and to their lawyer, Benjamin Crump, who went on Face the Nation to also contradict this untruth.
