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Donald Trump issued a savage series of unsubstantiated indictments against his Democratic opponent for the presidency, Joe Biden, accusing the former vice president of appeasing “Antifa” by supporting rioters in major US cities preying on protests against police brutality.
As Trump puts it, Biden has ignored “leftist political violence in Democratic-run cities,” a claim that is categorically false.
While Biden has focused his campaign messages primarily on sympathizing with the victims of police shootings and calling for radical reforms to the law enforcement system, on Sunday he denounced “violence of all kinds by anyone” after a supporter Trump was shot and killed in Portland. , Oregon, on Saturday, as others paraded downtown in their vehicles, some fired paintballs and pepper spray at counter-protesters.
The statement was one of several examples of how the vice president condemned the violent protests and distanced himself from the riots and looting.
In a speech delivered Monday in Pittsburgh, Biden chided Trump’s “weak” leadership for appearing to exploit racial divisions and mistrust between law enforcement and their communities that continue to boil over for political purposes.
“This president long ago lost any moral leadership,” the former vice president said. “He cannot stop the violence because for years he fostered it … The fact that he has not asked his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is.”
Trump responded in kind, criticizing Biden in his press conference Monday for not directly condemning Antifa, the loose collection of left-wing anti-fascist protesters believed to have instigated riots and looting in protests against police brutality this summer.
“You don’t name it, you don’t solve it,” Trump said of the fact that Biden didn’t mention Antifa during any of his recent speeches, adding that “those on the left are the problem.”
Antifa is generally not considered a centralized political organization or ideology.
Trump speculated during his press conference Monday that Biden shares the same agenda and talking points as Antifa’s violent minority, which has undermined the message of millions of peaceful protesters calling for police reform in American cities this summer after the shooting. by George Floyd. in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and most recently Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“Even in your strange speech today that you gave in Pittsburgh you didn’t mention the far left or, from what I saw, I don’t think you mentioned the word Antifa. Antifa is a criminal organization, and you didn’t mention Antifa Goons, but mostly they seemed to blame the police and law enforcement, “Trump said.
“He even spoke of those on the right, but he did not speak of those on the left, and those on the left are the problem, and Antifa is the problem.”
The President continued: “When you give yourself to the mob you don’t get freedom, you get fascism. That’s what happens in all cases … Biden is using mob talking points: the mob will leave you alone if they you give what you want. ” . That is what it is.”
During the question-and-answer portion of his press conference, Trump appeared to defend his supporters who were videotaped firing paintballs and pepper spray at counter-protesters in Portland in Trump’s parade of vehicles on Saturday.
“They had a large number of people who [Trump] supporters, but that was a peaceful protest, “he said, claiming they were using” paint as a defensive mechanism. “
He added: “The paint is not bullets.”
Trump also criticized left-wing elements for proposing that prisoners be allowed to cast their electoral votes.
“If you are the Boston terrorist, they want you to have a vote,” the president said, referring to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Kyrgyz man of Chechen descent who was convicted of setting off bombs in the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has advocated for inmates’ voting rights, while Biden has proposed restoring voting rights for people who have served their sentences.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is stepping up its operations to root out left-wing extremist elements that have overshadowed, at least in conservative circles, the millions of peaceful protesters for police reform this summer.
The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security are prepared to announce a joint operations center to “investigate violent left-wing civil unrest,” Trump told reporters.
That announcement comes on the heels of reports that the president and his administration have largely ignored pleas from DHS aides to address domestic right-wing terrorism.
The feds have already arrested about 200 people in a crackdown on left-wing political violence in “cities run by Democrats,” the president said.
“Federal police are working with state and local authorities across the country to review hours of video, locate the rioters, looters and arsonists, and bring them to justice,” he said.
“We are doing it very quietly, but we are trying to help cities. In all cases they are run by Democrats, but we are doing the best we can to help them without a lot of consent,” he said. said.
Rittenhouse was “trying to get away” from the protesters, “and he fell, and then they attacked him very violently,” Trump said.
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