President Donald Trump assailed anti-racism demonstrations the day after a man was shot and killed amid confrontations between Black Lives Matter protesters and Trump supporters in Portland.
“The 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 said in one post. “The people of Portland won’t put up with no safety any longer. The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard!”
Trump’s posts, of which there were dozens, came as Portland police investigate the shooting death of a man amid clashes between those who participated in a pro-Trump vehicle rally and counter-protesters. A picture from the scene published by Getty Images showed the victim wearing a hat with a Patriot Prayer logo. The group is described as far-right, by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
It was unclear if the shooting was connected to the protests.
Video from the scene showed protesters hurling projectiles like water bottles at the Trump caravan. Trump supporters sprayed protesters with paintballs and what appeared to be pepper spray. Multiple fights between the groups were seen breaking out through the night.
Trump shared a video of the pro-Trump caravan driving into Portland and labeled them “GREAT PATRIOTS!” He also referred to the protesters are “Disgraceful Anarchists” and said, “We are watching them closely.”
Saturday’s clashes came days after Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, on Tuesday allegedly opened fire during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two people. Protests in Kenosha have followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, that was captured on video.
Rittenhouse was later arrested and charged with two counts of homicide among other charges in connection to that shooting. On Sunday, Trump liked a post promoting a thread from a Twitter user explaining why “Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump.”
Speaking with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows continued to pin violent episodes on “Democrat cities” — continuing a theme from Trump’s convention that wrapped last week. Repeatedly, convention speakers claimed that people “would not be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
“You know, you want to talk about Donald Trump’s America. Most of Donald Trump’s America is peaceful,” Meadows said. “It is a Democrat-led city in Portland that we’re talking about this morning who just yesterday denied help once again from the federal government.”
Ahead of Trump’s convention speech last week, 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden blasted Trump as “rooting for more violence, not less,” because he sees it as a political benefit. His remarks followed comments from departing White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who told Fox News, “the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety.”
Asked about Conway’s remark in an interview with Fox News Sunday, Lara Trump, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign and the president’s daughter-in-law, said the violence “certainly paints a very clear picture” and that if anyone thought of voting for Biden, “I bet their mind was changed.”
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said, “We are not safe in Donald Trump’s America.”
“This isn’t just happening in one place. It’s happening all over the country. It is happening under Donald Trump’s watch,” Klobuchar said, adding, that increases in crime are coupled with “over 180,000 people that died from this coronavirus.”
The White House said Saturday that Trump would visit Kenosha on Tuesday. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., said his appearance would merely serve “to agitate things and to make things worse.”
Asked about the violence in an interview with “This Week,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said his department is “happy to provide resources to bring this violence to an end, violence that, again, across the ideological spectrum, left or right, the violence needs to end.”
