If one public official in the United States knows a little something about witch hunts, it’s probably the mayor of Salem, Massachusetts. Call it a weird occupational requirement of leading the town most known for witch trials in which 200 people were accused and 20 were executed. And current Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll is pretty much fed up with Donald Trump screaming about being the victim of a witch hunt.
“Oy vey … again,” she tweeted on Tuesday. “Learn some history.”
1) Salem 1692 = absence of evidence+powerless, innocent victims were hanged or pressed to death
2)#Ukrainegate 2019 = ample evidence, admissions of wrongdoing+perpetrators are among the most powerful+privileged
“This situation is much different than the plight of the witch trial victims, who were convicted using spectral evidence + then brutally hanged or pressed to death,” she continued. “A dubious legal process that bears no relation to televised impeachment.”
Several people identifying themselves as descendants of victims of the Salem witch trials chimed in to back Driscoll up on these points. CNN’s Jamie Ehrlich, writing about Driscoll’s tweets summed up the differences between an impeachment inquiry and a witch trial, concluding that “Additionally, sorcery is not being used as evidence in the impeachment inquiry, and the sentence is not death.”