Donald Trump doubles down on his Central Park Five stance (again)

Former President Donald Trump used the national stage of Tuesday’s presidential debate to double down on his decades-old stance on the Central Park Five, the group of exonerated Black and Latino teens who were once falsely convicted of a brutal 1989 rape and assault.

In the debate's latter half, Vice President Kamala Harris invoked the infamous full-page advertisement Trump took out in New York City newspapers in the wake of the attack. At the time, Trump called for New York to reinstate the death penalty.

Harris, a Democrat, said Trump’s ad called “for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent.”

Trump, in turn, accused Harris of being “divisive,” before claiming “a lot of people, including Mayor Bloomberg, agreed with me on the Central Park Five.”

“They admitted,” Trump said. “They said they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt the person, killed the person ultimately. … Then they pled, ‘We’re not guilty.’”

Trump’s statement contained several falsehoods.

The Central Park Five did not, in fact, plead guilty; they were convicted at trial after providing confessions that ultimately proved to be false. All five men — including current New York City Councilmember Yusef Salaam — had their convictions vacated in 2002, thanks in part to DNA evidence.

The victim of the attack was brutalized and left in a coma, but she was not killed.

And Trump’s reference to Bloomberg’s support wasn’t clear. The mayor at the time of the attack was Ed Koch, whom Trump criticized in his ad. Bloomberg served as mayor from 2002 to 2013. His administration did fight a civil rights lawsuit the Central Park Five filed against the city, which the administration of his successor Bill de Blasio eventually settled.

Trump’s full-page advertisement has also come up in each of his previous presidential runs.

The ad, which ran in the New York Times as well as other papers, did not explicitly mention the Central Park case, though it was published when the teens began providing their false confessions.

“Bring back the death penalty,” the ad stated in bold font. “Bring back our police!”

Trump has repeatedly declined to apologize for the ad. In 2019, he said the teens “admitted their guilt,” according to The New York Times.

Salaam, a Harlem Democrat, was elected to the Council last year. He was in Philadelphia on Tuesday night to tout Harris’ performance in the post-debate “spin room,” and introduced himself to Trump as the former president took questions from the press.

“Ah, that’s good, you’re on my side,” Trump said, according to a video of their encounter.

“No, no, no,” Salaam said. “I’m not on your side.”

Salaam spoke at this year’s Democratic National Convention alongside three other members of the exonerated Central Park Five and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“[Trump] dismisses the scientific evidence rather than admit he was wrong,” Salaam said. “He has never changed and he never will.”

Update: This story has been updated with additional remarks from Donald Trump and Yusef Salaam.