President Trump threw down against ongoing riots engulfing American cities in a series of tweets Monday morning, singling out Kenosha and Portland.
He began by claiming Kenosha would not exist if he hadn’t demanded that the National Guard be deployed to crack down on violent protesters in the Wisconsin city.
“If I didn’t INSIST on having the National Guard activate and go into Kenosha, Wisconsin, there would be no Kenosha right now. Also, there would have been great death and injury. I want to thank Law Enforcement and the National Guard. I will see you on Tuesday!,” the president said on Twitter Monday.
He called on Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler to do the same.
“Portland is a mess, and it has been for many years. If this joke of a mayor doesn’t clean it up, we will go in and do it for them!,” Trump said.
The White House said Trump deployed the National Guard to Kenosha last week after Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers accepted the president’s offer of federal help.
Evers, a Democrat, welcomed the assistance after two protesters were killed, allegedly by 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who was among an armed group protecting businesses in Kenosha last Tuesday.
The president is expected to travel to Kenosha on Tuesday to meet with law enforcement officials and survey the damage caused by the protests.
Trump, in another post, said the “Radical Left Mayors & Governors of Cities where this crazy violence is taking place have lost control of their ‘Movement,’” referring to Black Lives Matter.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but the Anarchists & Agitators got carried away and don’t listen anymore – even forced Slow Joe out of basement!” he said, adding “LAW & ORDER!”
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, released a statement on Sunday accusing Trump of “fanning the flames” of violence.
“Shooting in the streets of a great American city is unacceptable. I condemn this violence unequivocally. I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same,” Biden said.
The former vice president is also expected to travel to Pittsburgh on Monday for a speech decrying Trump’s handling of the protests.
Biden’s statement came after Aaron Danielson, a member of the right-wing Patriot Prayer group, was shot and killed in Portland on Saturday. The shooter has allegedly been identified as an ex-military man who calls himself “100% ANTIFA” and ready for “war.”
The unrest erupted in Kenosha following the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer on Aug. 23.
The protests in Portland have been ongoing since May after George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
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