Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has certainly brought a lot of drama with the Trump case in Georgia with all her actions/scandals. The court forced her to remove attorney Nathan Wade (with whom she had had a romantic relationship) from the prosecution team in order for her to remain on the case.
While Judge Scott McAfee said there was a "significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team," he still didn't remove her from the case.
But Willis showed that she wasn't done quite yet with the drama in her fight to hold onto her job in the upcoming election.
The Fulton County Democratic Party held its first primary debate, sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club, on Sunday -- but Willis didn't even show up to debate her opponent, Christian Wise Smith.
This was frankly hilarious. They introduce Smith and then talk about Willis, as they pan to an empty podium.
HAHAHAHAHA: Fani Willis’ DA opponent, Christian Wise Smith, debated an empty podium yesterday, Sunday, after Willis failed to show up for Fulton County’s first Democrat Party debate.
— Simo saadi🇲🇦🇵🇸🇺🇸 (@Simo7809957085) April 29, 2024
NOTE: Willis is currently prosecuting Donald Trump in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/S14yB1tzVk
The moderator noted, "Ms. Willis declined to participate in the debate and is represented by an empty podium."
That pretty much said it all, doesn't it?
Christian Wise Smith didn't hold back, ripping into her for hiring Wade. He said, "Things had to happen differently."
"That issue is important to us in Fulton County and a lot of people across the country," Smith said on the stage, Fox 5 reported."When you pay one attorney nearly $1 million to handle one case, that leaves the rest of us vulnerable. That hurts everyone in Fulton County," he said.
Smith said, “I worked in that office, and my salary was significantly less than what that attorney [Wade] was paid.” He also explained, “And I was responsible for handling a lot more cases than one.” Great point.
Smith also dinged her, saying he heard she might have gone to the White House Correspondents dinner and that she was fundraising, but where was she for Fulton County?
Willis apparently doesn't feel that she has to show up and can just blow off the debate. Instead, she was hosting a "Self Care Fair." She likely knows she would have to face questions about her actions and she wouldn't be able to answer them. She's also facing multiple probes and investigations, so she likely can't feel comfortable about putting answers on the record about multiple subjects.
Despite all her scandal, she still has the lead at this point in the polls, which says a lot about Democrats that they would still support her after everything. But we'll have to see how it goes; blowing off debates isn't likely to help her.
Related:
DOJ Finds 'Inconsistencies' in Fani Willis' Use of Federal Grant Funds Amid Congressional Probe
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