Trump visits Kenosha, calls violence ‘domestic terrorism’
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump charged into the latest eruption in the nation’s reckoning over racial injustice on Tuesday, blaming “domestic terror” that he said fueled the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and declaring it was enabled by Democratic leaders.
While Trump declared the violence “anti-American,” he offered no words for the underlying cause of the anger and protests — accusations of police violence against Black men — and did not mention Jacob Blake, who was badly wounded last week in Kenosha.
Soon after arriving in the
city, a visit made over the objections of state and local leaders, Trump
toured the charred remains of a block besieged by violence and fire.
With the scent of smoke still in the air, he spoke to the owners of a
century-old store that had been destroyed and continued to link the
violence to the Democrats, blaming those in charge of Kenosha and
Wisconsin while raising apocalyptic warnings if their party should
capture the White House.
“These are not acts of peaceful protest
but, really, domestic terror,” said Trump. And he condemned Democrats
for not immediately accepting his offer of federal assistance, claiming
“They just don’t want us to come, These governors don’t want to call,
and the mayors don’t want to call. They have to ask.”
The city has
been riven by protests since the Aug. 23 shooting of Blake, who was hit
seven times in the back by police as he was getting into a car while
they were trying to arrest him. Protests have been concentrated in a
small area of Kenosha, and while there were more than 30 fires set in
the first three nights, the situation has calmed since then.
Trump’s
motorcade passed throngs of demonstrators, some holding American flags
in support of the president, others jeering while carrying signs that
read Black Lives Matter. A massive police presence, complete with
several armored vehicles, secured the area, and barricades were set up
along several of the city’s major thoroughfares to keep onlookers at a
distance from the passing presidential vehicles.
Offering federal
resources to help rebuild the city, Trump toured a high school that had
been transformed into a law enforcement command post. He said he tried
to call the Blake’s mother but opted against it after the family asked
that a lawyer listen in.
He later added he felt “terribly” for
anyone who suffered a loss, but otherwise only noted that the situation
was “complicated” and “under investigation.” The only words
acknowledging the suffering of African Americans came from a pastor who
attended the law enforcement roundtable.
Pressed by reporters,
Trump repeatedly pivoted away from assessing any sort of structural
racism in the nation or its police departments, instead blasting what he
saw as anti-police rhetoric. Painting a dark portrait of parts of the
nation he leads, the president again linked the radical forces he blamed
for the violence to the Democrats and their presidential nominee, Joe
Biden, declaring that chaos could soon descend on other cities across
America.
Trump condemned unrest in Portland, Oregon, too — as
well as an increase in shootings in cities including Chicago and New
York — and tried to take credit for stopping the violence in Kenosha
with the National Guard. But it was Wisconsin’s Democratic governor,
Tony Evers, who deployed the Guard to quell demonstrations in response
to the Blake shooting, and he had pleaded with Trump to stay away for
fear of straining tensions further.
“I am concerned your presence
will only hinder our healing,” Evers wrote in a letter to Trump. “I am
concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division
and move forward together.”
Biden has assailed Trump as an
instigator of the deadly protests that have sprung up on his watch. On
the eve of his visit, Trump defended a teenager accused of fatally
shooting two men at a demonstration in Kenosha last week though he did
not mention the young man Tuesday.
Claiming the mantle of the “law
and order” Republican candidate, Trump insists that he, not Biden, is
the leader best positioned to keep Americans safe. He said his
appearance in Kenosha would “increase enthusiasm” in Wisconsin, perhaps
the most hotly contested battleground state in the presidential race.
Blake’s family held a Tuesday “community celebration” at a distance from Trump’s visit.
“We
don’t need more pain and division from a president set on advancing his
campaign at the expense of our city,” Justin Blake, an uncle, said in a
statement. “We need justice and relief for our vibrant community.”
The
NAACP said Tuesday neither candidate should visit the Wisconsin city as
tension simmers. Biden’s team has considered a visit to Kenosha and has
indicated that a trip to Wisconsin was imminent but has not offered
details.
Biden, in his most direct attacks yet, accused Trump
on Monday of causing the divisions that have ignited the violence. He
delivered an uncharacteristically blistering speech in Pittsburgh and
distanced himself from radical forces involved in altercations.
Biden
said of Trump: “He doesn’t want to shed light, he wants to generate
heat, and he’s stoking violence in our cities. He can’t stop the
violence because for years he’s fomented it.”
Trump and his
campaign team have seized upon the unrest in Kenosha, as well as in
Portland, where a Trump supporter was shot and killed, leaning hard into
a defense of law and order while suggesting that Biden is beholden to
extremists.
Trump aides believe that tough-on-crime stance will
help him with voters and that the more the national discourse is about
anything other than the coronavirus, the better it is for the president.
Protests
in Kenosha began the night of Blake’s shooting, Aug. 23 and were
concentrated in the blocks around the county courthouse downtown. There
was an estimated $2 million in damage to city property, and Kenosha’s
mayor has said he is seeking $30 million from the state to help rebuild.
The
violence reached its peak the night of Aug. 25, two days after Blake
was shot, when police said the 17-year-old armed with an illegal
semi-automatic rifle shot and killed two protesters in the streets.
Since then marches organized both by backers of police and Blake’s
family have all been peaceful with no vandalism or destruction to public
property.
In Pittsburgh on Monday, Biden resoundingly condemned
violent protesters and called for their prosecution — addressing a key
Trump critique. And the former vice president also tried to refocus the
race on what has been its defining theme — Trump’s handling of the
coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 180,000 Americans dead —
after a multi-day onslaught by the president’s team to make the campaign
about the violence rattling American cities.
Biden’s wife, Jill,
on Tuesday kicked off a multi-week, 10-city tour of schools disrupted
by the pandemic in eight battleground states, drawing a direct line from
the empty classrooms to the administration’s failures combating
COVID-19.
During her tour of a Wilmington, Delaware, school, she spoke with teachers and administrators about doubts that in-person learning will actually resume anytime soon and the challenges — including obtaining new small desks and protective equipment to make sure classrooms can handle social distancing — if they do. She said feelings about heading back to school “have turned from excitement into anxiety, and the playgrounds are still.”
Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Wilmington, Delaware, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Alexandra Jaffe in Washington contributed reporting.