Defiant and conspiracy minded
“I will not be bullied. I will not be disparaged and I will not be threatened out of this office,” Thao said, adding a cabal of billionaires and the FBI want her out of office.
—OPENING ARGUMENT—Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao broke her silence at an emotional press conference on Monday morning in which she declared her innocence following a federal raid on her home last week.
—Thao was defiant.
“I want to be crystal clear. I have done nothing wrong. I can tell you with confidence that this investigation is not about me,” Thao said.
“I have not been charged with a crime and I am confident that I will not be charged with a crime because I am innocent.”
“I am the mayor to all the Oaklanders who work hard, who are working overtime to do the right thing to make the world a better place.”
Thao spoke of Oaklanders working hard to survive, but who also seem to never catch a break. “Guess what?” Thao said with tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’m not going down like that. We’re not going down like that.”
“I will not be bullied. I will not be disparaged and I will not be threatened out of this office.”
“I am a mother, a fighter, a survivor.”
“There are a lot of rightwing forces that know they will never win an election in Oakland fair and square. They know their extreme views are at odds with our Oakland values. But they have built the rules to protect and preserve their power and maintain dominance over the rest of us. We are a threat to that order.”
—Thao was conspiracy minded.
Thao repeatedly referenced a right-wing conspiracy of San Francisco and Piedmont billionaires aiming to remove her from office.
“I want to know more about the handful of billionaires from San Francisco and from Piedmont who are hellbent on running me out of office,” Thao said. San Francisco tech investor Ron Conway is the top funder of the Thao recall.
“The timing of this is troubling and we should all be concerned,” she said of the FBI raid occurring two days after the recall was certified for a future election.
At one point, Thao suggested these same billionaires were in cahoots with the FBI.
Thao asked why she had not been approached by the FBI prior to the raid and questioned why the media had been tipped off about the raid in time to have cameras ready to record the event.
Thao asked, although not by name, why former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who may be the subject of a campaign finance investigation by the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, has not been visited by the FBI. “Former city officials are sitting safely in their houses in the hills right now with campaign finance violations piling up. Mountains of evidence that prove actual wrongdoing.”
Thao referenced Seneca Scott, a former opponent in the 2022 Oakland mayoral race and a leader of her recall. Like the reference to Schaaf, Thao did not use Scott’s name but mentioned an opponent with a weapons charge against him. Those charges were dropped.
“This wouldn’t have gone down with the way it did if I were rich, went to elite private schools, and had come from money,” Thao said.
—Entire Thao press conference from NBC Bay Area
—Analysis from Justin Berton on KRON 4 News
—411 on the 510—Become an East Bay Insiders subscriber today and get full access to the inside scoop every weekday morning at 6 a.m.
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