Singer John Legend reignites his feud with former President Donald Trump by calling him a racist “down to his core.”
Legend made the remarks during an appearance on former White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s eponymous MSNBC show on Sunday.
The “All of Me” crooner discussed his advocacy for criminal justice reform, noting that the issue is “very real” to him, because he knows “what it feels like to have a family member in jail.”
The notorious Trump hater, who publicly battled with him in 2019 over Twitter, cited the former president as an example of how the justice system favors the nation’s wealthy.
John Legend tells Jen Psaki that Trump is the “beneficiary” of a two-tiered justice system. Psaki noticeably leaves out how her former boss didn’t get charged for mishandling classified documents because he’s too old, feeble, and forgetful. pic.twitter.com/splaySpLTB
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“You watch the life and times of Donald Trump, every trial that he’s a part of, you notice he’s not spending time in jail before he goes to trial, he’s innocent until he’s proven guilty,” Legend remarked.
“And we all know that, but what happens with folks who can’t afford bail; they have to languish in jail before their case,” he added.
Legend pointed out that plenty of “negative things” happen to criminal offenders while they remain in jail “because they don’t have maybe $500 to buy their freedom.”
“That’s not keeping us safer, that’s saying, ‘we have a separate system for people who are poor versus people who have the means to pay this cash bail,’” he accused.
The “On Time” singer claimed that Trump is receiving “way more concessions” than a typical criminal defendant would.
“He’s getting delays, he’s got access to all kinds of lawyers that are filing this and filing that, delaying every trial,” he listed off. “Most people don’t have access to that kind of lawyering.”
🔥🚨BREAKING NEWS: John Legend told MSNBC that Donald Trump is a racist at his core.
Legend stated: “He's made it clear throughout his life that Black people are inferior, he believes that to his core… but also when you hear some of the stray comments he makes.
He clearly… pic.twitter.com/nhtEIEmcNB
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) April 22, 2024
“He’s gotten away with a lot for a long time, he’s been a fraudster for a long time, he’s been cheating people for a long time, he’s been lying for a long time and he’s actually been litigating for a long time,” Legend told Psaki.
“So yes, there is a two-tiered justice system, but not in the way that he thinks. He’s the beneficiary, absolutely … the fact that he’s out in the world, that’s not normal for a lot of people.”
Legend absolutely believes that Trump is not an “ally” to black people, and insists that the Republican candidate is actually “racist” at his “core.”
“He’s made it clear throughout his life that Black people are inferior, he believes that to his core, in his bones,” the liberal star alleged.
“But also when you hear some of the stray comments he makes, he clearly believes in a genetic hierarchy of humanity and is racially determined, so he is a tried and true, dyed-in-the-wool racist,” he added.
Legend doesn’t “want to hear” what Trump has said he’s done for black people, which includes the criminal justice reform bill he signed into law in 2018.
“He wouldn’t let us live in his buildings back in the day. … When we protested the killing of George Floyd, he was advocating for the military to shoot us in the streets,” the singer concluded.
“I don’t want to hear what [Trump] has to say about what he’s done for Black people. He’s done very little for us.”
Ironically, Trump’s feud with Legend kicked off in 2019, after the singer-songwriter participated in an MSNBC special on criminal justice reform.
The then-president responded to the program failing to mention the First Step Act that he signed into law, which helped to reduce the sentences of nonviolent felons.
“Musician John Legend and his his filthy mouthed wife, are talking now about how great it is – but I didn’t see them around when we needed help getting it passed,” Trump tweeted about the singer and his wife Chrissy Teigen.
“Imagine being president of a whole country and spending your Sunday night hate-watching MSNBC hoping somebody–ANYBODY–will praise you,” Legend snapped back. “Melania, please praise this man. He needs you.”
“The absolute best part of his tweet is I literally didn’t speak in the special, nor was I mentioned,” Teigen jumped in. “I’m cackling at the pointless addition of me.”