President Donald Trump on Monday refused to condemn violent acts committed by his supporters during recent protests in Wisconsin and Oregon while blaming "radical left maniacs" for the civil unrest spreading across the country in the wake of a string of police shootings of Black Americans.
Most notably, the president declined to in any way criticize Kyle Rittenhouse, a Trump-supporting teenager from Illinois who is accused of killing two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week during a demonstration over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
"That was an interesting situation," Trump said of Rittenhouse during a brief news conference at the White House. "You saw the same tape as I saw. He was trying to get away from them I guess, it looks like, and he fell. And then they very violently attacked him, and it was something that we're looking at right now and it's under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed."
Rittenhouse, 17, has been charged with using an AR-15 rifle to fatally shoot two protesters and wound another in Kenosha on Aug. 25 after traveling to the city on a self-styled vigilante mission amid unrest over a white police officer shooting Blake in the back seven times in front of his three young children.
The teenager's social media profiles are littered with pro-Trump posts and he was spotted in the front row of a Trump campaign rally in Iowa earlier this year.
Trump is slated to travel to Kenosha on Tuesday, though he's not expected to meet with Blake's family, some members of which have called him "racist."
In his news conference at the White House, Trump said he had spoken with the Blake family's pastor over the phone earlier in the day, but that he didn't want to talk with the relatives because they had insisted on having their lawyer present.
"I said, 'No, that's inappropriate,' but I gave my best regards," Trump said.
Contrary to Trump, Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, has spoken with the Blake family.
Trump also would not condemn a supporter of his who was spotted on video firing a paintball gun into a crowd of protesters and journalists during a demonstration over the weekend in Portland, Oregon.
"Paint is a defensive mechanism. Paint is not bullets," Trump said, even though the supporter was seen firing a barrage of paintballs into the crowd from the back of a moving pickup truck.
Diverting from the paintball video, Trump turned to Aaron Danielson, a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer who was fatally shot during clashes in Portland on Saturday.
"Your supporters, and they are your supporters, indeed, shot a young gentleman who, and killed him, not with paint, but with a bullet, and I think it's disgraceful," Trump told reporters in the room.
Police have yet to identify a suspect or a motive in the Danielson shooting.
The president falsely claimed the right-wing adherents who went into Portland on Saturday had not been violent.
"These people, they protested peacefully. They went in very peacefully," he said.
With the coronavirus pandemic still crushing the U.S. economy and killing thousands of Americans every week, Trump has rejiggered his reelection bid to focus on "law and order."
As part of that nakedly political effort, Trump claimed in the Monday briefing that Biden doesn't support law enforcement officers and is providing cover for rioting "anarchists."
"Those on the left are the problem," Trump said. "They've lost control of these radical left maniacs."
Despite Trump's comments, Biden has repeatedly condemned looting and vandalism while voicing support for peaceful protests over the police shootings of Blake, George Floyd and other Black Americans.
During a speech from Pittsburgh on Monday afternoon, Biden pointed out that the chaos Trump keeps blaming him for is happening on the president's own watch and urged Trump to condemn all forms of political violence.
In a statement after Trump's news conference, Biden said the president failed to answer his call.
"Tonight, the president declined to rebuke violence," Biden said. "He wouldn't even repudiate one of his supporters who is charged with murder because of his attacks on others. He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it."
