Until a few days ago, The Hot Screen had never heard of Democratic Representative Frederica Wilson. Now, as the Trump White House zeroes in on her as its African-American target du jour, in an attempt to move the discussion away from his lies about contacts with Gold Star families, his slander against previous presidents, and why the hell U.S. troops are now fighting in Niger, articles like this one are giving us some background on Wilson’s character and career. Both President Trump and Chief of Staff Kelly have slandered her as “wacky” and a showboat, yet her history of public service (including involvement in education and work to help disadvantaged youth) show that these two men are way off the mark. And the fact that she actually knew and had helped La David Johnson before he joined the military, and is a friend of the family, is important context for understanding her involvement with them following Johnson’s death.
The article summarizes some of her political work this way:
[The] technicolor clothes and flashy demeanor belies the grim legacy that made her an icon in the African-American community in Florida and, now, the nation: her advocacy for young black men, particularly those who end up dead. Since her time in the Florida legislature, Wilson’s political identity has been forged by fights — often with a white, male-dominated establishment — to figure out what happened to them and why.
In recounting her political career, the article also notes Wilson’s involvement with a Florida legislature investigation into the beating death of a teenager at a boot camp in the state; according to the attorney for the boy’s family, the public relations tactics used to draw attention to that killing were subsequently employed after the killing of Trayvon Martin (Martin was from Wilson’s district). Wilson also founded a nonprofit program for at-risk African-American youth, a program in which Johnson had participated.
In a tweet today, Donald Trump has continued his attacks on Wilson, writing, “Wacky Congresswoman Wilson is the gift that keeps on giving for the Republican Party, a disaster for Dems. You watch her in action & vote R!" This tweet continues Trump’s recent tendency to more or less plainly state the political intent of his twitters — in this case, letting us know that his attacks on Wilson are indeed all about political gain for himself and his party. He’s probably right that attacks on the Congressperson will rally his base; The Hot Screen is less sure that most people who do indeed “watch her in action” as she pursues inquiries about what’s going on in Nigeria won’t find her reasonable questions preferable to the president’s self-serving evasions. The Hot Screen is also not so certain that it’s the Democrats who are facing disaster at this point, when it’s actually the president who not only lied about his contacts with Gold Star families, but has also engaged in a series of new lies to cover his tracks.
