CNN analyst April Ryan on Sunday floated the idea of the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecuting President Donald Trump for "instigating a race war."
"This president, Donald John Trump, has instigated a race war in America," she said. "There is a race war right now because of this president. People are calling me, asking if there indeed is a way to get the International Crimes Court [sic] to come in to deal with this. You know, I've talked to some people who are in intelligence, and they're saying, 'He's done heinous things,' but they have to see, we don't know for sure."
This is not the first time it has been suggested that the president might face ICC prosecution. In April, Ohio state representative Tavia Galonski (D.) said she would refer Trump to the ICC for crimes against humanity after he suggested hydroxychloroquine could be an effective treatment for coronavirus. When asked by the press how she would go about making the referral, Galonski said she had "no idea," but added, "How hard can it be?"
Galonski later tweeted her email address, asking for a lawyer "on the international level to contact me."
According to a report by Law & Crime, the U.S. has routinely rejected attempts by the ICC to prosecute any of its citizens for domestic crimes since the 1990s, and no president has ever been tried at the ICC.
Democrats and members of the media have accused Trump of fomenting a "race war" by not condemning violence committed by those who supposedly support him. The white suspect Ryan held up as her example of this ongoing race war, Kyle Rittenhouse, is facing homicide charges for shooting white people.
Ryan, who has been a White House correspondent since 1997, has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration. In 2018 she asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if Trump had considered resigning from office.