President Donald Trump has frequently seemed highly concerned with using recent violent rioting as political leverage. Kellyanne Conway, who until recently was a Trump staffer, essentially confirmed as much when she was still on the job — she insisted that “the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is” for Trump’s re-election chances, as if Trump can use the chaos to cast himself as some kind of savior. Utah’s Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who is consistently one of the only high-profile members of the GOP to speak out against Trump, harshly condemned Trump for fanning the flames.
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
‘The comments and tweets over the past few days, including a retweet of a 2019 video clearly intended to further inflame racial tensions, are simply jaw-dropping.’
The video that Romney is referring to is a video that Trump recently retweeted depicting a black man pushing a white woman into a subway train in New York City, which the Twitter caption claimed that “Black Lives Matter/ Antifa” was responsible for, which was a blatant lie. The president of the United States seems so gullible and eager to jump into the fray of stoking unrest that he’s seemingly willing to retweet just about whatever nonsense he sees, without even bothering to do a fact-check.
Trump yesterday retweeted a tweet that falsely blamed "Black Lives Matter /Antifa" for a black man assaulting a white woman.
1) BLM/Antifa had nothing to do with it. The man charged is a serial offender on the NYC subway system.
2) The video was posted by a white nationalist.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 31, 2020
Trump and his political allies have accused Democratic presidential pick Joe Biden and his own allies of being essentially okay with violent rioting. This is a lie — Biden has repeatedly, specifically, and unequivocally condemned violence. He has also singled out Trump for his role in helping lead the charge of tension in the first place. In a recent speech, Biden said:
‘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.’
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 sharp contrast, at a recent press conference, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany couldn’t even bring herself to single out Kyle Rittenhouse for special condemnation. Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree murder after shooting three people at a protest.
REPORTER: Does the president condemn the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is accused of shooting protesters?
McENANY: The president is not going to weigh in on that pic.twitter.com/MNaL1tkESx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 31, 2020
