Democrats accuse president of rooting for violent unrest
WASHINGTON — Democrats on Sunday accused President Trump of trying to inflame racial tensions to benefit his campaign as he praised supporters who clashed with protesters in Portland, Ore., where one man died overnight, and announced he will travel to Kenosha, Wis., amid anger over the shooting of another Black man by police.
Trump’s tweets came hours after a man identified as a supporter of a rightwing group was shot and killed in Portland when a large caravan of Trump’s supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters clashed in the city’s streets. Trump praised the caravan participants as “GREAT PATRIOTS!” and blamed the city’s Democratic mayor for the death.
Trump has throughout the summer cast American cities as under siege by violence and lawlessness, despite the fact that most of the protests demonstrating against racial injustice have been largely peaceful. Democrats accuse Trump of rooting for unrest and trying to stoke further violence for political gain instead of ratcheting down tensions.
Biden in a statement said he “unequivocally” condemned violence on all sides, while accusing Trump of “recklessly encouraging” it.
“He may think that war in our streets is good for his reelection chances, but that is not presidential leadership — or even basic human compassion,” Biden said.
“Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence?” asked Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. “It’s you who have created the hate and the division.”
The White House struck back. “The only people to blame for the violence and riots in our streets are liberal politicians and their incompetent policies that have failed to get control of these destructive situations,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere.
Trump prepared to travel this week to Kenosha, where tensions are still raw after police shot Jacob Blake, a 29yearold Black man, in the back seven times, leaving him paralyzed. The shooting has ignited new demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality months after George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer touched off a wider reckoning on race.
But Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, asked Trump to reconsider. “I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together,” Evers wrote in a letter to Trump, obtained by the Associated Press.
Rep. Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat who leads the Congressional Black Caucus, said Trump is “doing everything he can to fan the flames.”
“I think his visit has one purpose, and one purpose only. And that is to agitate things and to make things worse,” Bass said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”