Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is running for re-election this November … sort of.
Typically, candidates for elected office engage in campaign events like debates. Willis, however, was a no-show for Sunday evening’s debate against opponent Christian Wise Smith.
Smith, a former prosecutor for the county, debated an empty podium instead of Willis, as Georgia’s Capitol Beat News Service reported Monday.
Some outlets claimed that Willis’ failure to appear was surprising, but in fact she declined the invitation to participate at least a week ago, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Willis’ handling of the prosecution of former President Donald Trump has come under fire repeatedly, perhaps most famously for hiring Nathan Wade as special prosecutor, a man with whom he had a romantic involvement.
Willis and Wade both insisted that the romance began only after he’d already been hired, but the judge in the case ruled that Wade would have to resign as special prosecutor or that Willis herself would need to step aside. Wade resigned shortly after the judge announced his decision.
During the debate, Wise Smith brought up the fact that Willis had decided to pay an outside attorney to prosecute the case rather than assign someone from her own office to handle it.
“When you pay one attorney $1 million to handle a case, it hurts everyone else in Fulton County,” Wise Smith said, according to Capitol Beat.
However, he added that he’d continue the case against Trump if he is elected in November.
Should District Attorney Fani Willis be impeached?
“We have to see (the Trump case) through while addressing everything else affecting Fulton,” he said.
That wasn’t the only thing Wise Smith suggeseted he would have done differently in Trump’s case — not to mention several others in Fulton County.
“Wise Smith also questioned the use Willis has made of Georgia’s broad RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) statute to go after criminal conspiracies, not only in the Trump case but in the prosecution of rapper Young Thug and a group of associates on gang-related charges and in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating scandal a few years back,” Capitol Beat reported.
“RICO was designed for organized crime,” the former prosecutor said during the debate. :Using it against teachers is an overreach.”
He also said that he would work to reduce overcrowding at the county jail through a “diversion program” that would help “bring people through the system a lot faster.”
Willis was co-hosting the second annual “Self Care Fair” Sunday evening as the debate was held, according to the New York Post.
According to a poll of Fulton County voters released four days prior to the debate, Willis was leading Wise Smith by a “commanding” 70 points, with 79 percent support compared to his 9 percent, WAGA-TV reported.
Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson told the outlet that Willis’ lead was expected.
“If you look at this case against former President Donald Trump, it is received not just national attention but international attention,” she said. “She is probably other than the New York DA, the most talked about DA in the world right now. How does that correlate to Fulton County voters? When you look at this poll, it is a very name-specific, name-recognition poll.
“And everyone knows her name.”
