Source: The Washington Post - Politics - The Fix - Analysis: Written by Aaron Blake, with contributions by Mark Berman; posted at 11:45 am EDT on 1 September 2020
Trump's Illuminating Defense of Kyle Rittenhouse
At the start of and throughout his news conference Monday evening, President Trump attacked Joe Biden for condemning violence but not specifically left-wing perpetrators of it.
By the end of the news conference, Trump not only pointedly declined to condemn right-wing violence at the the same demonstrations, he voluntarily defended it.
The president offered his first public comments about Kyle Rittenhouse, a supporter who was charged with murder in Kenosha, Wis., as well as other Trump supporters who converged on Portland, Ore., and apparently fired paintball guns and pepper spray at protesters.
Trump found little fault with any of them. He noted that at least the paintballs weren't bullets and called it a "peaceful protest."
"Well, I understand that had large numbers of people that were supporters, but that was a peaceful protest," he said. "And paint is not - and paint as a defensive mechanism, paint is not bullets. ... These people, they protested peacefully. They went in very peacefully."
Trump supporters in Portland
Trump then pointed to a man who identifies as an anti-fascist and who is under investigation in the killing of a right-wing demonstrator after a Trump rally in Portland.
Trump said the man "shot a young gentleman and killed him - not with paint, but with a bullet. And I think it's disgraceful."
The president offered no such condemnation, though, when it was noted that one of his supporters, Rittenhouse, has been charged with killing with actual bullets in Kenosha. Trump indicated that he thought Rittenhouse's actions might have been warranted.
"That was an interesting situation," he said. "You saw the same tape as I saw. And he was trying to get away from them. I guess it looks like he fell and then they violently attacked him. And it was something that we're looking at right now, an it's under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble. He would have been - probably would have been killed, but it's under investigation."
The exchanges highlighted the similarities and the differences between Trump's and Biden's approaches to the unrest.
Biden has repeatedly condemned the violence that has occurred in cities across the country, often in broad terms. He has drawn criticism from Trump and his allies for not more specifically highlighting left-wing violence or mentioning antifa, but Biden has referenced "anarchists" and said he condemns violence on both sides of the political spectrum. "I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right," Biden said Sunday.
Trump was given his own chance to acknowledge and condemn violence perpetrated by his supporters, and he notably took a hard pass - failing to even offer the broad type of denunciation that Biden has stated.
It bears noting that there is much we don't know about the Rittenhouse situation. Multiple videos show him being chased by demonstrators, though it is not clear what preceded that. Prosecutors charged him with two counts of murder and one count of attempted homicide. Trump's comments echoed the defense put forth by the 17-year-old's attorneys, who said he "did nothing wrong" and "exercised his God-given, constitutional, common law and statutory law right to self-defense." ****Note from BND: Even though he carried an assault rifle, which, as a minor, is illegal for him to own, across state lines and was violation of a law-mandated curfew.****
Kyle Rittenhouse before the shootings
The contrast between how Trump spoke about that situation vs. the others is telling. In the Portland case, he called the actions of someone who hasn't been charged "disgraceful"; in the case of Rittenhouse and the supporters who apparently fired paintballs and pepper spray at protesters, he defended them and suggested they were acting understandably under the circumstances.
Trump offered similar comments Sunday after videos surfaced showing his supporters in Portland.
"Th big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing," Trump Tweeted in response to a video posted by New York Times reporter Mike Baker, who said Trump backers "shot me too."
"The people of Portland won't put up with no safety any longer. The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard!" the president wrote.
Trump offered similar comments on Fox News on Monday night, saying, "I want to leave it to law enforcement. But my supporters are wonderful, hardworking, tremendous people, and they turn on their television set and they look at a Portland or they look at a Kenosha ... They are looking at all of this and they can't believe it. They can't believe it."
He added, despite the scenes of paint balls and pepper spray, that "it's a peaceful protest."
To some degree, this is how personal biases work. It's easier to sympathize with someone who agrees with you and with whom you associate. You're much more liable to question the motives of someone who you don'y align with, and you're much more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to someone you sympathize with.
It's evident to whom Trump gives the benefit of the doubt, from Charlottesville through today. And in the course of a couple of minutes Monday night, that benefit of the doubt applied to a supporter who has been charged with a crime - in a way it very much didn't apply to a person who hasn't. Trump's comments about supporters who fire paintballs and pepper spray are also notably different from how he has talked about those who have used other nonlethal blunt instruments. Just because it's not deadly doesn't mean it's not violent.
It's one thing to denounce someone more forcefully - particularly when there is an ongoing elegal case; it's another to volunteer defenses for them. And for a president who has criticized his opponent for supposedly failing to condemn people on his political side specifically enough, it was instructive that Trump declined to provide a similar statement.
Source: The Guardian - US Edition - US Politics: Written by Tom McCarthy; posted at 2:12 pm EDT on Tuesday, 1 September 2020
Trump Arrives In Kenosha With Bill Barr As He Pushes Law-And-Order Message
Full story can be read at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/01/trump-golf-police-shooting-comparison-fox-news-interview - this is an excerpt....
....... Before his visit, the president defended a teenager who shot two anti-racism protesters dead in the city last week. He also compared the actions of a white Kenosha police officer who fired seven shots into the back of a black man, hitting him four times in the back, to a golfer choking on a putt.
The Democratic governor of Wisconsin and the mayor of Kenosha both urged Trump to stay away from the city, where many have marched to protest the shooting last month of Jacob Blake by officer Rusten Shesky. Partially paralyzed from the shots, Blake remains in the hospital.
Police follow Jacob Blake to his car, shooting him 7 times as he
opens the door, and his three sons were sitting in the car
As Trump flew in, reverberations continued from an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Monday night in which he compared Shesky to a golfer missing a putt.
"Shooting the guy - shooting the guy in the back many times, I mean, couldn't you have done something different, couldn't you have wrestled him?" Trump said.
"You know, I mean, in the meantime he might've been going for a weapon and you know, there's a whole big thing out there. But they choke. Just like in a golf tournament. They miss a 3-foot putt."
Ingraham, a prominent Trump supporter who spoke at the 2016 Republican convention, cut the president off abruptly.
"You're not comparing it to golf, because that's what the media would say," she said.
"I'm saying people choke," Trump replied. "People choke." ......
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