Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney for Fulton County, did not attend the county’s first Democratic Party debate on Sunday, thus her opponent had to argue in front of an empty podium.
Christian Wise Smith, an author and attorney, was Willis’s Democratic opponent in the debate, which was hosted by the Atlanta Press Club. Smith was the only person on stage.
Willis “declined to participate in the debate and is represented by an empty podium,” the debate moderator stated following a quick introduction regarding Smith.
Rather than filing a massive lawsuit alleging election meddling against former President Trump and his associates, Willis co-hosted Atlanta’s annual “Self Care Fair” in observance of Crime Victims’ Rights Week, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.Â
In reference to the ongoing trial of rapper Young Thug and his associates, her reelection campaign told Atlanta News First earlier this month that Willis is “not doing interviews that include discussion of the substance of high-profile cases the office is prosecuting, particularly the election interference prosecution and the ongoing trial of alleged YSL defendants.”
In what was supposed to have been the question-and-answer period for the candidates, the moderator gave Smith the opportunity to ask Willis his own question and offer a refutation of his assessment of her response.
“My question for you is: Where are you? You know I’m here because I care about the citizens and the families of Fulton County,” Smith stated. “But it’s my understanding that you may have attended the White House correspondents’ dinner. You might be fundraising across the country, but what about us here in the Fulton County? What are you doing to address the issues in the jail? What are you doing to address the backlog? Where are you, Ms. Willis?”
When asked whether he had a counterargument, Smith stated that “her absence is all the response that we need,” but he could not speak for Willis.
He also attacked the scandal that arose from Willis’s amorous past with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor who left the Trump case in March due to a court decision.
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In Willis’s racketeering case against Trump, Judge Scott McAfee determined last month that there appeared to be a conflict of interest between Wade and Willis. If Wade left, Willis was free to stay on the case. McAfee’s decision to permit her to do so has been appealed by Trump and eight of his co-defendants.
Smith said, “That issue is important to us here in Fulton County and a lot of people across the country,” in response to the question of whether he would pursue Willis’s case against Trump and make use of the state’s racketeering law.
“We all heard the call, we all saw what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, but you have to do things differently,” he further added. “When you pay one attorney nearly a million dollars to handle one case, that leaves the rest of us vulnerable. That hurts everyone else in Fulton County.”
Wade allegedly benefited monetarily from his job because of his friendship with the DA, according to the move to disqualify Willis from the case.
Smith lost his race against Willis four years ago. On May 21, the two will compete in a primary. The sole Republican to meet the requirements by the deadline was Courtney Kramer, who claimed to have worked as an intern for three months in 2018 in the White House Counsel’s office under Trump.