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Trump’s illuminating defense of Rittenhouse
InternationalSep 01. 2020
By The Washington Post · Aaron Blake · NATIONAL, POLITICS
At the start of and throughout his news conference Monday evening, President Donald Trump criticized Joe Biden for condemning violence but not specifically the left-wing perpetrators of it.
By the end of the news conference, Trump declined to condemn right-wing violence at the same demonstrations.
Trump offered his first public comments about Kyle Rittenhouse, a supporter who was charged with murder in Kenosha, Wis., and other Trump supporters who converged on Portland, Ore., and apparently fired paintball guns and pepper spray at protesters.
Trump found little fault with them. He noted that at least the paint balls were not bullets, and he called it a “peaceful protest.”
“Well, I understand that had large numbers of people that were supporters, but that was a peaceful protest,” Trump 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 then pointed to a man who identifies as an anti-fascist who is under investigation of killing 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.”
Trump offered no such condemnation, though, when it was noted that a supporter of him, Rittenhouse, has been charged with killing, with actual bullets. In that case, Trump indicated that Rittenhouse’s actions might be warranted.
“That was an interesting situation,” Trump 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 very violently attacked him. And it was something that we’re looking at right now, and it’s under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble. He would have been I probably would have been killed, but it’s under investigation.”
The exchanges highlighted the similarities in and also 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, a loosely linked group of anti-fascists, but he 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 took a pass – not even offering the broad type of denunciation that Biden has.
It bears noting that there is much we do not know about the Rittenhouse situation. Videos show him being chased by demonstrators, though it’s not clear what preceded the videos, and prosecutors opted to charge Rittenhouse with two counts of murder and one of attempted homicide. Trump’s comments echo the defense offered 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.”
The contrast between how Trump spoke about that situation and the others is telling. In that case, Trump called the actions of someone who has not been charged “disgraceful”; in the case of Rittenhouse and the supporters who apparently fired paintball guns and pepper spray at protesters, his first inclination was to defend them and suggest they were acting understandably under their circumstances.
Trump offered similar comments Sunday after videos surfaced showing his supporters in Portland.
“The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and [sic] 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!” Trump wrote.
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 you do not align with, and you’re much more liable to give the benefit of the doubt to someone you sympathize with.
But it’s also evident to whom Trump gives the benefit of the doubt, from the Charlottesville, Va., Unite the Right rally in 2017 through today. And even in the course of a couple minutes on Monday night, that benefit of the doubt applied to one supporter who has been charged with a crime in a way it very much did not apply to another person who has not. 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 does not mean it’s not violent.
It’s one thing to decline to denounce someone more forcefully – particularly when there is an ongoing legal 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 similarly broad statement.
SootinClaimon.Com 