 [NYPOST] Embattled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao blasted the federal investigation that led to the FBI raiding her Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, home last week — claiming if she was rich and went to an elite school she wouldn’t have been targeted.
That's a "tu quque" ("You do it too") fallacy, right? Only she's trying to make it sound like an "Et tu, Brute" argument.
Thao, who is facing a recall fate in November over rising crime and the departure of the Oakland A’s, was defiant in her first remarks since agents were seen at a home where she lives.
"I want to be crystal clear: I have done nothing wrong," Thao said Monday. "I can tell you with confidence that this investigation is not about me."
She claimed that she was being targeted when other politicians have done much worse.
See? "Hoc etiam facis."
"This wouldn’t have gone down the way it did if I was rich, if I had gone to elite private schools or if I had come from money," she said.
"I know that for sure because former elected officials are sitting safely in their houses in the hills right now with campaign finance violations piling up."
War story. Ignore it if you bore easily or at all: I was OD (Officer of the Day, if you ain't been there) one night several million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the world, when the MPs and a couple German cops brought a young black guy in. He'd mugged a Turk in the park. I got to make a log entry, call his company commander, and sign receipt and stuff. Finally it was just him and me, with his CO on the way in to give him a good talking to or arrange for a firing squad or something. So the kid looked at me, and he sez: "If I wasn't black, I wouldn't be here!" Yeppers! I just sat there and thought about it for a teeny weeny moment, considering all the white, Asian, Hispanic, Injun, Hottentot, and albino kids who had mugged Turks in the park and gotten off Scot free. Then I laughed my ass off, which is why I have no ass to this very day. True story, on my honor as a Biden.
Thao’s home was raided early Thursday morning along with two other homes in the Oakland area belonging to David and Andy Duong, a father-and-son team who run California Waste Solutions and have recycling contracts with Oakland, NBC Bay Area reported.
Both Duongs have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to local politicians over the years, including to Thao.
It remains unclear exactly what the investigation concerns, but agents were seen carting boxes out of Thao’s home during the raid.
Thao, who shares the house with her partner, was apparently home with her son when the FBI arrived.
The mayor became emotional during the presser, wiping away tears as she recalled growing up as the daughter of poor refugees.
"When my parents came to this country fleeing genocide, they never could have imagined that their daughter would one day be mayor of Oakland. I am my ancestors’ wildest dream," she said.
"And I am your mayor: Mayor Sheng Thao."
Not everybody wants it to be that way, however.
Since she took office in 2023, crime in Oakland has sharply increased, with violent mostly peaceful crime and burglaries rising more than 20% from the year prior.
Some have of blamed the progressive Thao for the troubles, and in May a petition for a recall vote gained the necessary 25,000 signatures needed to bring it to ballot this November.
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[NYPOST] Embattled Oakland Mayor