President Donald Trump and his political allies consistently refuse to acknowledge the straightforward condemnations of violence that have come from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his own political allies. Trump consistently seems intent on trying to use recent violence as leverage for political gain — and in fact, outgoing Trump staffer Kellyanne Conway recently insisted that “the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is” for Trump’s re-election chances. In a Monday speech, Biden (yet again) flatly condemned the violence and took Trump to task for his role in stirring it up. Trump promptly took to Twitter with a nonsense-riddled, total mischaracterization of what Biden actually said.
Lara Trump doubles down on the idea that Trump is rooting for violence as Trump incites violence in Portland https://t.co/CTcx5l2MF6
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) August 30, 2020
Trump tweeted:
‘Just watched what Biden had to say. To me, he’s blaming the Police far more than he’s blaming the Rioters, Anarchists, Agitators, and Looters, which he could never blame or he would lose the Radical Left Bernie supports!’
Just watched what Biden had to say. To me, he’s blaming the Police far more than he’s blaming the Rioters, Anarchists, Agitators, and Looters, which he could never blame or he would lose the Radical Left Bernie supports!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2020
First of all — Biden isn’t exactly some kind of radical leftist to begin with (he doesn’t even support Medicare-for-all, at least according to the current left-wing proposal), so Trump’s characterization of Biden as somehow in cahoots with a “Radical Left” base is just totally incorrect. Furthermore, on Monday, Biden condemned the violence very straightforwardly, and he also condemned Trump for having “long ago forfeited any moral leadership” amidst the crisis.
Biden said:
‘I want to make it absolutely clear, something very clear about all of this: Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those who do it should be prosecuted. Violence will not bring change. It will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way… Fires are burning, and we have a president who fans the flames, rather than fighting the flames… This president, long ago, forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He cannot stop the violence because for years he has fomented it.’
Check out some of his comments below:
Biden: "Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting… it's lawlessness, plain & simple… violence will not bring change. It will only bring destruction… this POTUS long ago forfeited any moral leadership. He cannot stop the violence b/c for years he has fomented it." pic.twitter.com/6fWRemMnld
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 31, 2020
In short: the claims from Trump and his allies that Joe Biden is somehow okay with violent rioting are completely false. They are not possibly true, or maybe on the right track: the claims are unequivocally false.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump below:
