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President Donald Trump plunged into the latest eruption of the nation’s reckoning on racial injustice with a trip today to Kenosha, Wisconsin, over objections from local leaders.
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The city of Wisconsin has faced unrest since the Jacob Blake police shooting last month. Source: Breakfast
The city has been divided by protests since the Aug. 23 shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man who was hit seven times on the back by police as he got into a car while trying to arrest him.
On the eve of his visit, Trump defended a teenage supporter accused of fatally shooting two men at a rally in Kenosha last week and accused Democrat Joe Biden of siding with “anarchists” and “rioters” in the riots. .
“I am there for law enforcement and the National Guard because they have done a great job in Kenosha. They put out the flame immediately, ”Trump said as he got on Air Force One.
President Donald Trump speaks with business owners in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Source: Associated Press
Upon arrival in the Midwest, his caravan passed a mix of supporters, many with American flags and protesters, some with signs that read Black Lives Matter. As police stood, barricades were erected along several of the city’s main thoroughfares in an effort to keep bystanders at a distance from passing presidential vehicles.
Trump accused the mayor of defending “radical anarchists.”
“We just have to stop, I saw last night where these radical anarchists were trying to get into the mayor’s house and a lot of bad things were happening to this poor, stupid and very stupid mayor,” he said.
“I mean, I have no idea how I could be mayor, but all you have to do is call and in 10 minutes your problem will be over.”
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The visit is expected to continue despite requests that the president stay away. Source: Breakfast
Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who deployed the National Guard to quell demonstrations in response to the Blake shooting, had pleaded with Trump to stay away out of fear of further straining tensions.
“I am concerned that their presence only hinders our healing,” Evers wrote in a letter to Trump. “I am concerned that his presence will only delay our work to overcome the divide and move forward together.”
Biden has attacked Trump for the deadly protests that have erupted during his tenure. But Trump, claiming the Republican candidate’s mantle of “law and order,” offers himself as the leader best positioned to keep Americans safe.
He insisted that his appearance in Kenosha would “increase the excitement” in Wisconsin, perhaps the most contested battlefield status in the presidential race, as the White House said it “wants to visit disadvantaged Americans.” The White House said Trump was not meeting with Blake’s family. Blake’s family planned a “community celebration” to correspond with Trump’s visit.
“We don’t need more pain and division from a president determined to move his campaign forward at the expense of our city,” Justin Blake, an uncle, said in a statement. “We need justice and relief for our vibrant community.”
The NAACP said today that none of the candidates should visit the city of Wisconsin while the tension boils. Biden’s team has considered a visit to Kenosha and has indicated that a trip to Wisconsin was imminent but has not offered details.
Biden, in his most direct attacks yet, yesterday accused Trump of causing the divisions that have ignited the violence. He delivered an unusually searing speech in Pittsburgh and distanced himself from the radical forces involved in the altercations.
Biden said of Trump: “He doesn’t want to shed light, he wants to generate heat, and he’s fueling violence in our cities. It cannot stop the violence because it has been fomenting it for years ”.
Trump, for his part, reiterated that he blames the radical rioters incited and backed by Biden. But when asked about one of his own supporters who was accused of killing two men during the chaos in Kenosha, Trump refused to report the killings and suggested that the 17-year-old suspect, Kyle Rittenhouse, was acting in self-defense. .
After a confrontation in which he fatally shot a man, police say, Rittenhouse fell while being pursued by people trying to disarm him. A second person was shot and killed.
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Reporter Eammon Ashton Atkinson spoke to Breakfast about the timing of the shooting, the protests, and the Republican National Convention. Source: Breakfast
“That was an interesting situation,” Trump said yesterday during a news conference. “He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it seems, and he fell. And then they attacked him very violently … in big trouble. He would have been – probably would have been killed.”
After Trump’s defense of Rittenhouse, Biden indulged in his response, saying in a statement: “Tonight, the President refused to rebuke the violence. He would not even repudiate one of his supporters who is accused of murder for his attacks on others. He’s too weak, too scared of the hatred he’s aroused, to stop it. “
The president also suggested that some police officers “drown” when faced with challenging situations and offered an odd comparison, comparing them to golfers who “miss a 3-foot putt.”
Trump and his campaign team have taken advantage of the riots in Kenosha, as well as Portland, Oregon, where a Trump supporter was shot and killed, leaning strongly in defending law and order while suggesting that Biden it is in debt to the extremists. Trump, on the way to Wisconsin, lamented the shooting in Oregon and again tried to link the violence to the Democratic leadership.
Trump’s advisers believe the tough stance on crime will help him with voters and that the more the national discourse is about anything other than coronavirus, the better it is for the president. In the Fox interview, Trump insisted that if he were not president, “you would have riots like you’ve never seen before.”
The protests in Kenosha began the night of the Blake shooting, Aug. 23, and were concentrated in the blocks around the center of the county courthouse.
The first three nights, more than 30 fires broke out and numerous businesses were vandalized. There was an estimated $ 2.96 million in city property damage, and the mayor of Kenosha has said he is seeking $ 344.42 million from the state to help rebuild.
The violence peaked on the night of Aug. 25, two days after Blake was shot, when police said a 17-year-old man armed with an illegal semiautomatic rifle shot and killed two protesters in the streets. Since then, marches organized by both police supporters and Blake’s family have been peaceful, with no vandalism or destruction of public property.
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In an emotionally charged speech, Blake’s father urges the crowd to show restraint rather than anger. Source: Associated Press
In Pittsburgh, Biden roundly condemned the violent protesters and called for their prosecution, addressing a key criticism of Trump. And the former vice president also tried to refocus the race on what has been his defining theme: Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 180,000 Americans dead, after a multi-day onslaught by the president’s team. to campaign on violence shaking American cities.
Biden’s wife, Jill, today began a multi-week tour of 10 pandemic-disrupted school cities in eight battlefield states, drawing a direct line from empty classrooms to administration failures in the fight against the Covid-19.
During his tour of a Wilmington, Delaware school, he spoke with teachers and administrators about doubts that in-person learning will really resume anytime soon and the challenges, including obtaining new small desks and protective gear to make sure classrooms can handle social distancing. — if they do it.
He said feelings about going back to school “have gone from excitement to anxiety, and the playgrounds are quiet.”
