Those hoping George Zimmerman gets a harsh sentence cannot be thrilled with how testimony is going for the prosecution’s star witness, Rachel Jeantel. Jeantel was the last person to speak to Trayvon Martin before his death. Glenn and Pat reacted to the latest nonsense on radio today.
Yesterday, Glenn read some of the tweets that have magically disappeared from Jeantel’s Twitter account that don’t paint the young woman in a particularly favorable light. In addition, during her testimony yesterday, there was an uncomfortable moment when Jeantel was forced to admit she was unable to read the letter she allegedly wrote because it was written in cursive – and she can’t read cursive.
“She supposedly wrote this letter to Trayvon's mother saying, you know, I was on the phone with him and I know what happened and I heard it all, but when asked to read it on the stand, she couldn't,” Glenn explained. “The prosecutor said, ‘Why not?’ And she said, ‘Well, I can't read cursive handwriting.’ Now, she had already testified that… that was her letter, she wrote it. Can you write cursively but not read it? How does that work out? It wasn't her letter. She didn't write it.”
The downward spiral continued when the prosecution tried to cover up the racially charged nature of the “creepy white cracker” comment Jeantel testified Martin said to her while they were on the phone that fateful day by claiming Jeantel does not fully understand the language.
Here is a sampling of the questioning from the defense yesterday:
ATTORNEY: Trayvon Martin saying creepy ass cracker and using the N word, that people like ‑ people speak like that in your culture. Did you hear that?
JEANTEL: Yes, sir.
ATTORNEY: Well, what culture is that, where people describe other people as creepy ass crackers?
JEANTEL: Pervert.
ATTORNEY: I'm sorry? Do you understand what I mean by the culture, the culture that you were raised in, the culture that ‑
JEANTEL: The area I was raised, you're saying to say?
ATTORNEY: Right. I'll say it this way: The people that you live around and with call white people creepy ass crackers?
JEANTEL: Not creepy but cracker, yeah.
ATTORNEY: So the creepy is the pervert part that you were talking about?
JEANTEL: No.
ATTORNEY: So forget that for a second. You're saying that the culture that you live in, in your community people call ‑ people there call white people crackers?
JEANTEL: Yes, sir.
ATTORNEY: And do they use the N word regularly?
JEANTEL: Yes, sir.
ATTORNEY: And you're saying so did Trayvon Martin? Trayvon Martin referred to white people as crackers, correct?
JEANTEL: I don't recall, sir.
“Now there's a black culture,” Pat asked. “And, by the way, it's the same culture, apparently, that the President spoke of in Dreams From My Father, where he mentioned the culture over and over and over again.”
“Listen to that. Listen to that. Let's listen to this logic here,” Glenn continued. “Cracker is not a problem. It's just part of my culture. It's not a problem. It's not racist. That's what she said. It's not a racial slur. It's not racist. It's part of my culture. Okay… What kind of culture is that that says that creepy crackers? Well, it's a repulsive one. It's a repulsive one, yes.”
Considering Jeantel was once considered a star witness for the prosecution, her credibility (or lack there of) could quickly become an issue. Many on the left have come out against those who are questioning the culture and character of Jeantel – claiming those who are looking into her background are trying to ‘smear’ her. And yet, when you are reading someone’s own words – as is the case when Glenn read Jeantel’s tweets and testimony – the only person smearing Jeantel is herself.
“So let's put [Trayvon] into perspective on who he was,” Glenn said. “That's a culture that they should be getting away from. Isn't it? That's a culture we should be getting away from. That is a culture that is destroying people like Paula Deen for engaging in that culture 20 years ago. And, yet, we're smearing Jeantel. No, we're not. We're playing her words and showing you what her culture is.”
“And if you don't like looking at the transparency and seeing what your culture is, well, then maybe you've got a problem and that's what this attorney did. He didn't bully her. He made her look into the water. He made her look into the mirror,” he continued. “What does that mean for the beloved Trayvon Martin? What will that mean if I then say, ‘Yes, Trayvon was part of that culture, he did say that thing’? She knows. She knows the life she's living is a lie. She knows that her culture is the underbelly of what culture should be. She knows it. Otherwise, she would have been proud to answer that question, but she wasn't.”