Right-wing radio host, commentator, conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump–obsessed sycophant Wayne Allyn Root was on the air last night when the news broke that a jury had found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty of murder and involuntary manslaughter in the 2015 death of Kate Steinle.
Steinle's death has been a rallying cry for Donald Trump and other anti-immigrant extremists who have wildly misrepresented the facts in the case, and the reaction to the verdict has predictably been one of total outrage.
Root, who was furious about the verdict, managed to see the bright side because now President Trump and Republicans have a hammer with which they can "pound away at Democrats day and night."
"If we had just found this guy guilty, yes, we would have gotten some revenge," Root said, "but we'd all forget about it tomorrow and move on with life. But by him being found innocent, this is going to be as big as the O.J. Simpson verdict and the whole nation is going to be talking about it. There are going to be people so angry and screaming in the streets and Donald Trump is going to have an issue to hammer away and hammer away and hammer away—I want this guy's picture next to Kate Steinle's picture on Trump presidential campaign ads and ads in 2018 for Republican candidates against liberal candidates for the United States Congress and the United States Senate."
"We will use this issue like a hammer," Root vowed, "like Willie Horton to pound away at Democrats day and night, night and day. This is one of the great disgraces in the history of the United States of America and our legal system that has run amuck and Donald Trump can use it to our benefit."
