Protesters gather in front of the burning Minneapolis police 3rd Precinct building Thursday in Minneapolis. Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody Monday, broke out for a third straight night. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Donald Trump’s racism and promotion of violence in America drew another “warning” from Twitter for “glorifying violence.
“Any difficulty, and we will assume control,” Trump wrote in a Twitter rant shortly after midnight. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Twitter flagged that tweet, saying “this tweet violating the Twitter rules about glorifying violence.”
But Twitter did not delete Trump’s tweet, saying “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
The tweet was “hidden” so that it not be a prominent but the White House didn’t like that and tried an end around:
In an act of defiance, the White House hours later reposted a quotation of the president’s controversial comment about shootings on its account. That, too, received a label from Twitter indicating it broke company rules around glorifying violence.
Interesting double standard, but such hypocrisy is normal in the world that surrounds America’s wannabe dictator and corrupt president.
Trump called those protesting the death of African-American George Floyd after police in Minneapolis abused him after he pleaded for a need for “air” as a white police officer kneeled on his neck.
“I won’t let that happen,” Trump said of the protesters. “Just spoke to Governor Tom Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
Trump ignored the fact that Walz had already deployed the National Guard and they answer to the governor, not the bombastic wannabe president.
Twitter’s warning is the third issued to Trump this week. The other two concerned his bias against mail balloting, which he claims are “a fraud.”
Critics suggest Trump is the fraud in this and other matters.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Belshar, a Democrat, urged Trump to withdraw the tweet:
During these times, we can condemn violence while also trying to listen, to understand, to know that there is deep frustration, rightfully so, in our country — that there has not been enough action on creating equality, opportunity, and in health care, and in a time of this COVID-19 epidemic, it’s laid bare all of that.
Officials have a responsibility not just to maintain the peace, which is what we ought to be doing, but to also listen, to show empathy, and to try to find a way to move in the right direction, not the wrong one.
Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton noted that Trump normally does not get involved street killings of black citizens by white police officers.
“I think the difference is a November election,” Sharpton said.
Normally, Trump has advocated rougher treatment of black people in police custody. Now, Sharpton suggests he is trying a last-minute appeal to black voters who have shown overwhelming support for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Notes Theodore Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice:
Most of America knows Joe Biden as the vice president to the first black president in history. And black voters especially look at President Obama and say if Biden is good enough for Obama to trust, then who am I to sort of question that? The other thing is Biden presents as the most electable.
For an electorate where the most important thing is beating Donald Trump in November – and Trump’s disapproval rates among African Americans is exceptionally high – Biden presents as the person that can do that not just because of his ability to win the African American vote. But there is a sense that he can win over some of those white, working-class voters given his Delaware-Pennsylvania roots. So Biden sort of meets the two prongs of pragmatism. One is, can we trust him to keep our civil rights protections in place? And is he electable. And on both scores, he did better than any of the other candidates that entered the Democratic primary this cycle.