Trump has arrived in Kenosha, Wisconsin, accompanied by several senior administration officials, including attorney general William Barr.

 Trump says he can heal national divide with "law and order"

 

The president made the remarks before traveling to Kenosha, Wis., where police recently shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake, fueling more protests.

 

By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL

09/01/2020 01:46 PM EDT

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/01/trump-national-divide-law-and-order-406928

 

President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that he was bridging the nation’s racial divide with law-and-order rhetoric, even as he continued to air conspiracy theories about the racial justice protests that have convulsed the country and sparred with Democratic mayors and governors in places that have seen recent violence.

 

Trump told reporters outside Joint Base Andrews that he would like to heal America’s racial wounds and said his messaging was helping accomplish that, “because I’m about law and order.”

 

“If you look at the Black community, they want the police to help them stop crime. The Hispanic community, they want police,” he said. “They don’t want crime. They don’t wanna be mugged. They don’t wanna have any problems, and it’s just a shame.”

 

His comments came shortly before the he boarded Air Force One en route to Kenosha, Wis., a trip the city's mayor and Wisconsin’s governor objected to. The trip comes more than a week after a white police officer shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times, sparking another wave of protests in a country that has seen several high-profile instances of racial violence against Black Americans by white police officers and vigilantes.

 

Two days after Blake was shot, a white Illinois teenager allegedly shot three people during protests in Kenosha, killing two, and a white man was killed in Portland, Ore., over the weekend after a clash between protesters and Trump supporters.

 

Trump will not meet with Blake’s family or engage with protesters, according to White House guidance on the president’s daily activity, but he will survey “property affected by recent riots,” tour an emergency operations center and participate in a roundtable with local enforcement.

 

Even before landing in Kenosha, the president was widening divides. He cited an anonymous person who, he said, claimed to have flown on a plane “filled” with looters, anarchists and rioters “obviously looking for trouble,” doubling down on something even Trump-friendly Fox News host Laura Ingraham said sounded like a conspiracy theory.

 

And Trump said he was traveling to Kenosha to thank law enforcement officers there, because they “had such a big success in shutting down … a city that would’ve been burnt to the ground by now.”

 

“I think a lot of people are looking at what’s happening to these Democrat-run cities, and they’re disgusted,” Trump said. “They see what’s going on, and they can’t believe this is taking place in our country. I can’t believe it, either.”

 

The president also said he saw “radical anarchists” trying to get into Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s house Monday night. Hundreds of demonstrators protested outside Wheeler’s home Monday to call for his resignation. Police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and later a riot.

 

“Lots of bad things were happening to this poor, foolish, very stupid mayor,” Trump said. “I mean, how he could be mayor, I have no idea, but all he has to do is call, and within 10 minutes, their problem will be over. As you know, they have to call us. They have to call and request help.”

 

Trump claimed a “tremendous” number of people were “harassing” Wheeler “horribly” and trying to break into his home. Nineteen people were arrested at the protest. Some people were charged with rioting, carrying concealed weapons and committing criminal mischief, and one person is accused of trying to assault an officer.

 

“And he still sticks up for them because he’s a fool," said Trump. "Only a fool would stick up for them like that,” he added. “These are anarchists. These are agitators. They’re rioters. They’re looters. They’re bad people. They’re burning down Portland.”

 

Trump said the man who was killed Saturday in Portland was “targeted” and that protesters “were so happy” about the killing. And he lamented the media's focus on his supporters shooting paintball guns at protesters instead of highlighting what he called an execution in the street. The shooting was widely covered.

 

“The press should be ashamed of themselves. I think the press is actually — the media is what’s fueling this, more so than even [Democratic presidential nominee Joe] Biden,” Trump said. “Because Biden doesn’t know he’s alive. The press is really fueling this, and they’re fueling it horribly. And you’re doing a great disservice to your country.”