Politics - News Analysis

Trump Insists That White Supremacist Groups are Not Responsible for Protests — It’s All ANTIFA and People on the Left

Peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody quickly turned violent over the past weekend. That, however, hasn’t stopped President Donald Trump from repeatedly claiming there were no obvious “white supremests” at the protests.

Activists across the country gathered to peacefully protest police brutality and systemic racism, but violence erupted as police fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets into the massive crowds and on people destroying buildings, The Week reports.

But rather than address the issue effectively, Trump blamed the violence on anti-fascist protesters, declaring the Antifa a terrorist organization. That’s even though white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Bois fomented violence at many of the protests.

And like always, he took to Twitter, this time to share a talking point from Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade, who claimed Monday that he didn’t “see any indication that there were any white supremests groups mixing in” during the protests, and once again blamed the Antifa for the unrest. Trump tweeted the quote, using Kilmeade’s made-up term “white supremest” in lieu of using white supremacist.

Kilmeade offered no evidence to support his claim that there were no “white supremests” at the protests and he wrongly claimed Antifa is an organization. In reality (something that folks on Fox News seem to have trouble with) “Antifa” is a broad term for protesters who are against the oppression of people of color and other minority groups.

Trump has said nothing, however about the Ku Klux Klan (which has a long history of violence against Black people) or the Proud Boys, real, actual organizations that are listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Groups that do support terror. But are you really surprised?

meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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