President Trump told Fox News that the police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times last month was just having a bad day, like a golfer who misses a simple putt.
Said Trump: “Shooting the guy in the back many times, I mean, couldn’t you have done something different? Couldn’t you have wrestled him? But they choke. Just like in a golf tournament. They miss a three-foot putt.”
“President Trump has been throwing accelerant on the fire of the nation’s social unrest rather than trying to put it out, seeking confrontation rather than calm at a volatile moment his advisers hope will help salvage his campaign for a second term,” the New York Times reports.
“Other presidents in times of tumult tried to settle down communities convulsed by racial and cultural divisions, but Mr. Trump has encouraged one side against another. He has threatened to deploy federal forces, condoned freelance actions by his own armed supporters, conflated peaceful protesters with violent rioters and used the strife to undercut his political opponents.
Joe Biden’s speech in Pittsburgh today “will attempt to draw a contrast between himself and President Trump on the issue of law and order, arguing that there would be more violence in America if Trump is re-elected,” Axios reports.
From his prepared remarks: “This president long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence — because for years he has fomented it… Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is re-elected?”
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President Trump will meet with Attorney General Bill Barr and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Monday ahead of his trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, Bloomberg reports.
“Federal law enforcement personnel were deployed in Portland, Oregon, last month to try to suppress protests there, but Democratic state and city officials say the agents only heightened violence in the city’s streets and demanded they leave.”
Joe Biden issued a statement unequivocally condemning violence on all sides after a man was fatally shot Saturday night during a clash between supporters of President Trump and anti-racism protesters, Axios reports.
Said Biden: “We must not become a country at war with ourselves. A country that accepts the killing of fellow Americans who do not agree with you. A country that vows vengeance toward one another. But that is the America that President Trump wants us to be, the America he believes we are.”
He added: “What does President Trump think will happen when he continues to insist on fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters? He is recklessly encouraging violence.”
Jacob Blake’s attorney Benjamin Crump told CBS News that President Trump has not contacted the Blake family ahead of his planned visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, more than a week after police shot Blake seven times in the back.
Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris spoke with the Blake family for over an hour last week.
“Joe Biden is not expected to visit Kenosha on Monday, despite mounting pressure following Donald Trump’s announcement over the weekend that he planned to go there Tuesday,” Politico reports.
“The thinking, according to these people, is that Trump’s trip to Kenosha could backfire on him, given Biden’s continued messaging that the unrest in the city is an outgrowth of the president’s rhetoric that inflames racial tensions.”
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows argued on NBC News that “most of Donald Trump’s America is peaceful” and that the violence that the Trump campaign has so frequently highlighted as part of its “law and order” message is in “Democrat cities.”
Asked whether Trump is only in charge of the places where he has supporters, Meadows responded: “Well, he does govern and lead the entire country. … These are local law enforcement efforts that can be supported by a federal backstop, whether it be National Guard or the FBI.”
“President Trump will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to meet with law enforcement and to survey some of the damage from the recent protests,” CNN reports.
“When asked if the President would meet with the family of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot by police, White House spokesman Judd Deere said that the schedule hasn’t been fully ironed out yet.”
Joe Biden is set to travel to an undisclosed location on Monday to “condemn violence, and to note that chaos has unfolded” on President Trump’s watch, the New York Times reports.
Axios: “Biden’s apparent plans to travel and directly address the violence is an indication that the campaign is worried about losing ground on the law and order issue.”
“After a Republican National Convention week in which President Trump and his allies sought to brand Joe Biden as radically anti-law enforcement, the Democratic nominee took implicit aim at that characterization in his own remarks on Saturday as he swiped at Mr. Trump’s calls for ‘law and order’ and ripped the president’s record as commander in chief,” the New York Times reports.
Biden, speaking to national guard troops, said: “I promise you, as president, I’ll never put you in the middle of politics, or personal vendettas. I’ll never use the military as a prop or as a private militia to violate rights of fellow citizens. That’s not law and order. You don’t deserve that.”
Team Trump officials told Axios they’re using the same tactic, with a suburban twist, that worked for the campaign in 2016 when they portrayed a country at risk from “violent” immigrants flooding the U.S.-Mexico border:
Wall Street Journal: “A Journal/NBC News survey this month found crime to be well behind the economy, coronavirus and other matters as a top concern for voters.”
Michelle Obama said that she is “devastated” by the police shooting of Jacob Blake and killing of two protesters this week in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Said Obama: “These past few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about what our kids are seeing every day in this country — the lack of empathy, the division stoked in times of crisis, the age-old and systemic racism that’s been so prominent this summer. Sometimes they see it on the news. Sometimes they see it from the White House Rose Garden. And sometimes they see it from the back seat of a car.”
George Packer: “Here is a prediction about the November election: If Donald Trump wins, in a trustworthy vote, what’s happening this week in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will be one reason. Maybe the reason. And yet Joe Biden has it in his power to spare the country a second Trump term…”
“Nothing will harm a campaign like the wishful thinking, fearful hesitation, or sheer complacency that fails to address what voters can plainly see. Kenosha gives Biden a chance to help himself and the country. Ordinarily it’s the incumbent president’s job to show up at the scene of a national tragedy and give a unifying speech. But Trump is temperamentally incapable of doing so and, in fact, has a political interest in America’s open wounds and burning cities.”
“Biden, then, should go immediately to Wisconsin, the crucial state that Hillary Clinton infamously ignored. He should meet the Blake family and give them his support and comfort. He should also meet Kenoshans like the small-business owners quoted in the Times piece, who doubt that Democrats care about the wreckage of their dreams. Then, on the burned-out streets, without a script, from the heart, Biden should speak to the city and the country.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) noted the contradiction of President Trump giving his Republican convention speech on the White House lawn last night: “They condemn law breakers while breaking the law.“
“The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order.”
— Kellyanne Conway, making the case on Fox News that the killings of peaceful protesters will benefit President Trump politically.
A RNC video showing rioters setting a city street on fire in “Biden’s America” is actually a photo from Barcelona, Spain, BuzzFeed News reports.
The video was intended to be a warning of the dire consequences if Biden is elected president.
BuzzFeed News: “The law enforcement–obsessed 17-year-old who was charged with shooting and killing two people and injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during protests for Jacob Blake appeared in the front row at a Donald Trump rally in January.”
The International Association of Chiefs of Police “asked for each candidate’s views on nine specific areas of crime or other issues that impact law enforcement, and the solutions they planned to provide. The chiefs asked how they would address violent crime, violence against women, hate crimes, homegrown violent extremism, opioid abuse and traffic safety,” the Washington Post reports.
“Biden’s response on the nine issues stretched over four pages, calling for assault weapons bans, massive investment in drug treatment programs and investing $300 million in the COPS program to hire more officers and deputies.”
“Trump did not respond to the nine issues and provided no explanation.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.