--- title: Atlanta Mayor Calls Ahmaud Arbery Shooting a 'Lynching' description: Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said the shooting "was a lynching" and that White House rhetoric emboldens those "prone to being racist." canonical: https://time.com/5834840/atlanta-mayor-ahmaud-arbery-shooting-trump/ author: Sanya Mansoor article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-05-10T15:40:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:43:44.468Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Atlanta Mayor Says Ahmaud Arbery Shooting 'Was a Lynching, Blames White House For Emboldening Racists og:description: On Feb. 23, Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was shot and killed while jogging in a residential area in Brunswick, Ga. og:url: https://time.com/5834840/atlanta-mayor-ahmaud-arbery-shooting-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fa8c6b6d18ee1d2/698a0de301168235e297f5dc/atlanta-mayor.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Keisha Lance Bottoms og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Atlanta Mayor Says Ahmaud Arbery Shooting 'Was a Lynching, Blames White House For Emboldening Racists twitter:description: On Feb. 23, Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was shot and killed while jogging in a residential area in Brunswick, Ga. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fa8c6b6d18ee1d2/698a0de301168235e297f5dc/atlanta-mayor.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Atlanta Mayor Calls Ahmaud Arbery Shooting a 'Lynching' and Blames 'White House Rhetoric' for Emboldening Racists  by [Sanya Mansoor](/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor May 10, 2020 3:40 PM CUT  Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks onstage during the 2018 Essence Festival on July 7, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks onstage during the 2018 Essence Festival on July 7, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana.Paras Griffin—Essence/Getty Images  by [Sanya Mansoor](/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor May 10, 2020 3:40 PM CUT Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms joined the chorus of nationwide outrage about the [shooting of Ahmaud Arbery](https://time.com/5832731/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia-murder/ "undefined") Sunday, saying that “this was a lynching” which taps into a bigger issue of White House rhetoric she said emboldens “many who are prone to being racist.” On Feb. 23, Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was shot and killed while jogging in a residential area in Brunswick, Ga. Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael, who are both white, were arrested for the crime on Thursday and charged with murder and aggravated assault. “It is heartbreaking. It’s 2020 and this was a lynching of an African-American man and … my heart goes out to his family but I think again it’s a part of this bigger issue that we are having in this country,” Bottoms said on CNN’s _State of The Union_ to host Jake Tapper**.** “With the rhetoric that we hear coming out of the White House, in so many ways, I think many who are prone to being racist are given permission to do it in an overt way that we otherwise would not see in 2020.” > [](https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1259481603031564288) Bottoms says she believes the duo were only charged because the shocking video of the incident emerged online and went viral. Authorities had possession of that video from the beginning but murder charges were only filed this past week, Tapper noted. According to Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery’s family, police have had the video footage since Feb. 23, the day Arbery was killed. “I think had we not seen that video, I don’t believe that they would be charged,” Bottoms said on CNN. Bottoms said that previously, the Justice Department would be a “backstop” if local leadership failed to ensure that “people are appropriately prosecuted, but we don’t have that leadership at the top right now.” Bottoms says her three African-American sons are scared. “They are angry and they are afraid,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5834840/atlanta-mayor-ahmaud-arbery-shooting-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5834840/atlanta-mayor-ahmaud-arbery-shooting-trump/"},"headline":"Atlanta Mayor Calls Ahmaud Arbery Shooting a 'Lynching' and Blames 'White House Rhetoric' for Emboldening Racists","datePublished":"2020-05-10T15:40:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:43:44.468Z","description":"On Feb. 23, Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was shot and killed while jogging in a residential area in Brunswick, Ga.","url":"https://time.com/5834840/atlanta-mayor-ahmaud-arbery-shooting-trump/","keywords":["georgia","Crime","Brief","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fa8c6b6d18ee1d2/698a0de301168235e297f5dc/atlanta-mayor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sanya Mansoor","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fa8c6b6d18ee1d2/698a0de301168235e297f5dc/atlanta-mayor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Keisha Lance Bottoms","caption":"Keisha Lance Bottoms","creditText":"Paras Griffin—Essence/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/georgia/","name":"georgia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5834840/atlanta-mayor-ahmaud-arbery-shooting-trump/","name":"Atlanta Mayor Calls Ahmaud Arbery Shooting a 'Lynching' and Blames 'White House Rhetoric' for Emboldening Racists"}}]}] ```