Conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot called on American voters not to be fooled by President Donald Trump's attempts to incite violence to win in November.
Writing Sunday, Boot compared Trump to a kind of "cartoon villain" trying to devise "dastardly plots" that will lead him to victory.
"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," confessed Kellyanne Conway in a Fox News interview.
It is clear that if the voters turn from concerns about surviving the coronavirus to fighting a race war, Trump has a better chance of winning.
"Seldom has a more cynical or sordid thought been publicly expressed by such a senior White House aide," wrote Boot. "As Democratic nominee Joe Biden said, Trump is 'rooting for more violence, not less,' because he views it as politically beneficial in his quest to scare White America into voting for him."
Boot's assessment was echoed by former White House counsel John Dean and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, both of whom called out Trump for attempting to stir up violence.
Last week, a Trump supporter traveled from Illinois to Wisconsin and shot and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters, claiming he was trying to protect people and institute "law and order," a call Trump has made to his following.
This weekend, the same scene unfolded, as Trump supporters flocked to Portland, unleashing teargas and shooting protesters with paintballs.
"Trump supporters in trucks were at one point blocked in by the Black Lives Matter activists and began exiting their vehicles, precipitating the violence." Eventually, one person — wearing the hat of a far-right group called Patriot Prayer — was shot dead," the Washington Post reported. Trump supporters have flocked to the internet to herald the shot man as a hero in the war against Black Lives Matter. Trump called the man a patriot. It's still unclear what happened or who shot the man.
"Trump's reaction? On Sunday morning, he tweeted 'GREAT PATRIOTS!' in support of the pro-Trump agitators who instigated this violence and wrote approvingly: 'The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching [an] incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing,'" quoted Boot.
He lamented, "spare me the moral equivalency." He attacked Trump-loving commentators claiming Democrats support the violence, calling it "baseless propaganda" being pushed by Trump.
The president has lied about Biden's response as well, painting the former Vice President as some sort of anti-fascist, pro-violence protester hurling Molotov cocktails from his "basement" in Deleware all the way to Kenosha, Wisconsin.
"Protesting brutality is a right and absolutely necessary," Biden said. "Burning down communities is not protest — it's needless violence, violence that endangers lives, violence that guts businesses and shutters businesses that serve the community. That's wrong."
The far-left has proven time and again that Biden is not their candidate of choice. Trump, by contrast, couldn't even be bothered to say Jacob Blake's name the week he died, even though he appeared on television every day during the Republican convention. When George Floyd's death sparked outrage, Trump similarly bungled the response.
"Indeed, some of Trump’s most ardent fans are celebrating [Kyle] Rittenhouse’s alleged crimes.
Tucker Carlson, a top ratings grabber for Fox News, said: “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?” Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R.-Ariz.) said Rittenhouse's alleged acts were "100% justified self-defense."
Trump even "liked" a tweet saying, "Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump."
"I get that attacks on Biden as the candidate of lawlessness and disorder may be causing some voters to gravitate to Trump. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D.-MI), for example, reports seeing lots of 'Blue Lives Matter' signs in her suburban Detroit district," cited Boot. "Sarah Longwell, founder of Republican Voters Against Trump, has heard from a few women in focus groups that recent unrest makes them more likely to vote for Trump. And I get the need for Biden to be more vocal and visible in denouncing looters and rioters, as George Packer urges in the Atlantic."
"But we in the media need to be clearer about communicating the difference between perception and reality," Boot closed. "The horrors that Trump claims will unfold in Biden's America are actually happening right now in Trump's America — and the president is doing all he can to create those conditions for personal and political gain. Only one presidential candidate this year is fomenting violence — and it's not Joe Biden."
