By Hal Brown
Update: Since I wrote this last night and set it to go online automatically before I woke up and went to sleep the shooting and death of a Trump supporter occurred in Portland.
It is true that some of the Black Lives Matter protests erupted into what might justifiably be called riots with fires being set and stores being looted. Even though the majority of protestors were peaceful jumps has used the fiery visuals to stoke fear among his supporters. They, meaning black people, are coming to destroy your communities and endanger your lives is the message he is trying to send. Feigning ignorance about QAnon he won't even denounce their outrageous claims.
The fact of the matter is that while there has been property damage and theft at the BLM protests the violence against people has been committed by the police, and now we are seeing more instances of counter-protestors who support the president initiating violence. It may have happened but I haven’t heard of any BLM protestor starting a fight.
Trump ducked a question about the Kenosha killer when it would have made sense to simply condemn all violence on both sides. After all he had no problem saying “there were fine people on both sides” when it came to commenting on the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville.
ABC News just reported this: 'No Blame?' ABC News finds 54 cases invoking 'Trump' in connection with violence, threats, alleged assaults. The article describes all of the cases and includes a video.
Excerpts:
President Donald Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from acts of violence in communities across America, dismissing critics who point to his rhetoric as a potential source of inspiration or comfort for anyone acting on even long-held beliefs of bigotry and hate.
"I think my rhetoric brings people together," he said last year, four days after a 21-year-old allegedly posted an anti-immigrant screed online and then allegedly opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 and injuring dozens of others.
But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 54 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
Most of you have seen these already so scroll down for my opinion.
Yesterday we had two more examples of his supporters resorting to violence.
In Florida:
And where I live, in Portland we had this on a bridge which I have driven over numerous times.
Opinion
The media must hold Trump’s feet to the fire and demand he respond to each and every one of these incidents. They must not allow him to get away with evasion and claims that he hasn’t heard about the incidents by there and then reading him articles describing what occurred or even showing him the videos like the ones from Tallahassee and Portland (here’s an idea) by first holding up an iPad so he can see it and showing it to him. If iPads are banned they should bring 8x10 enlargements like ones on the top of the diary or like this one of Kyle Rittenhouse this to hold up.
When he succeeds in avoiding answering a question on this subject and others of significant importance like the cessation of the DNI briefings to Congress, once and for all the next reporter, assuming they aren’t from OANN or Fox News, should drop their planned question and demand he address the one he is trying to weasel out of answering.
I don’t think there is a violation of a journalism code of ethics to plan in advance to ask follow-up questions to make sure a president answers another reporter’s question. If Trump won’t answer reporter’s questions directly they should boycott all of his press appearances. How would it look if the only two reporters in the room or on the South Lawn were from OANN and Fox News?
Before Kenosha we could have written that it was only a matter of time before a Trump supporter would kill someone in his name. Now it has happened.
I expect that we will be seeing ads from the Democrats and from anti-Trump Republican groups like The Lincoln Project laying the blame for the violence squarely at Trump’s feet where it belongs.
However the media will be culpable if they don’t demand Trump answer their questions since they are the only ones who can confront him directly.
Here’s another example of the rage Trump engenders:
Here’s another example. The man who took the video and tweeted it is a reporter for Channel 7 in Boston. The man kept coming back and getting in his face without a mask and said fuck so many times that apparently this is why Twitter took it down. Someone else so far has gotten it past the censors:
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Watch DHS chief evade direct questions about condemning pro-Trump protesters.
