Topline
President Donald Trump addressed a mob of his supporters who charged past barricades and law enforcement to infiltrate the U.S. Capitol in a video message Wednesday, asking them to “go home in peace” and concluded by telling them “you’re very special,” which stands in stark contrast to the language and approach the president has used when addressing Black Lives Matters protesters, whom he has repeatedly referred to as “thugs,” “terrorists” and “anarchists.”
President Donald Trump speaks at the “Stop The Steal” Rally on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. … [+] Trump supporters gathered in the nation’s capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Key Facts
After starting his message by repeating baseless claims that the election had been told stolen, Trump empathized with those who had violently stormed the Capitol, saying, “I know your pain, I know your hurt,” before adding, “We love you.”
In a subsequent tweet, the president called the pro-Trump mob “great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”
In early September, Trump called a group of protesters “thugs” after a video went viral showing demonstrators clashing with diners eating outdoors at a Pittsburgh restaurant.
“B.L.M. Protesters horribly harass elderly Pittsburgh diners, scaring them with loud taunts while taking their food right off their plate,” Trump tweeted. “These Anarchists, not protesters, are Biden voters, but he has no control and nothing to say. Disgraceful. Never seen anything like it. Thugs.”
Earlier this year, Trump appeared to threaten violence against protesters (whom Trump, again, called “THUGS”) in Minneapolis following the death of Geroge Floyd, tweeting, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” and denouncing the destruction of property as “domestic acts of terror.”
Key Background:
Throughout his presidency, Trump has frequently portrayed anti-racism protesters as “violent demonstrators” with evil intentions. “They are not ‘peaceful protesters,’ as Sleepy Joe and the Democrats call them, they are THUGS,” Trump tweeted in September. Earlier this summer, he said demonstrators who wanted to take down Confederate statues were “people who don’t love our country.” In May, Trump said that protesters demonstrating outside the White House following Floyd’s killing were “just there to cause trouble.” He added that if any of those protestors got too close to the White House, “they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That’s when people would have been really badly hurt, at least.” In 2017, Trump said that any NFL player who kneeled during the national anthem is a “son of a bitch” and should be fired, despite also having claimed to be the “president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters.” Also in 2017, following a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, led by white supremacists protesting the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, Trump infamously said there were “very fine people on both sides” and lamented the loss of such monuments. In a series of tweets, Trump said it was “sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments.” This past July, Trump said a Black Lives Matter mural was “a symbol of hate.”
Tangent:
In October, Trump supporters surrounded a Biden campaign bus traveling on a Texas highway. The F.B.I. announced they would investigate the incident, which Biden described as an effort to run his team “off the road.” Trump defended his supporters, stating, “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the F.B.I. & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat-run cities and hurting our people!”
Chief Critic:
“The words of a president matter, no matter how good or bad that president,” President-elect Joe Biden said Wednesday afternoon in a speech condemning the insurrectionist mob. “At their best, the words of a president can inspire. At their worst, they can incite.”
What To Watch For:
It will be interesting to see if Trump calls for the immediate arrest of individuals caught on tape looting the Capitol during Wednesday’s raid. In July, the president tweeted, “Anarchists, Agitators or Protestors who vandalize or damage our Federal Courthouse in Portland, or any Federal Buildings in any of our Cities or States, will be prosecuted under our recently re-enacted Statues & Monuments Act. MINIMUM TEN YEARS IN PRISON. Don’t do it!”
