Days after Joe Biden laid out an argument that President Trump is inciting violence, prominent Democrats and left-wing commentators are taking the allegation a step further: Trump is stoking a “race war,” they say.
“This may sound hyperbolic, but Donald Trump wants a race war,” Andrew Gillum, former mayor of Tallahassee and Democratic candidate for governor of Florida in 2018, tweeted Monday. “Despite evidence of who’s really doing the shooting, his goal is to stoke white fear and anti-Blackness.”
This may sound hyperbolic, but Donald Trump wants a race war. Despite evidence of who’s really doing the shooting, his goal is to stoke white fear and anti-Blackness. The strength of our humanity, decency and commitment to the defense of democracy will be stretched at ever end.
— Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) August 31, 2020
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser appeared to reference Trump while warning about a race war during a press conference on Monday.
“What I’m worried about is this country descending into a race war,” Bowser said, citing the “continued incitement of violence from leadership, who should be focused on bringing our communities together,” and “black versus white rhetoric.”
The wave of allegations that Trump is stoking a race war follows a notable shift in focus and tone from Biden’s presidential campaign about violence, looting, and vandalism that sprang out of protests sparked by recent police shootings and killings of black men.
The shift followed the killing of an apparent pro-Trump demonstrator in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, as well as riots and fires in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, and the arrest of Illinois 17-year-old, pro-Trump vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse, who traveled to Kenosha and allegedly killed two people last week.
Biden countered Trump campaign arguments that riots and destruction are being perpetrated by “Biden supporters” in cities controlled by Democrats and that they would escalate if Biden is elected. Trump is the one making the country unsafe, Biden argued.
“As a country, we must condemn the incitement of hate and resentment that led to this deadly clash,” Biden said in a statement Sunday, referencing the Portland shooting. “Donald Trump has been president for almost four years. The temperature in the country is higher, tensions run stronger, divisions run deeper. And all of us are less safe because Donald Trump can’t do the job of the American president.”
In a speech on Monday, Biden said Trump is “stoking violence in our cities.”
The message that Trump is inciting violence was quickly repeated by prominent Democrats and those on the Left. “Mr. President, your job is to discourage violence, not incite it,” tweeted Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Some took the message further.
CNN analyst and American Urban Radio Networks bureau chief April Ryan directly blamed Trump for a race war on Tuesday.
“This president, Donald John Trump, has instigated a race war in America. Portland, Oregon, is ground zero. This president, Donald John Trump, has basically stoked the flames for racist extremists, neo-Nazis, and the ‘alt-right,’” Ryan said.
Ryan’s comments followed the slightly tamer words from Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler on Sunday. He told Trump: “Do you seriously wonder why this is the first time in decades America has seen this level of violence? It’s you who have created the hate and division.”
Donna Brazile, former interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, shared an opinion column by Dana Milbank that stated Trump “is trying to provoke a race war on the streets of America” because he is polling behind Biden.
Opinion | Cornered, Trump tries to foment a race war https://t.co/02EzbhPJ94
— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) September 1, 2020
Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins echoed the race war rhetoric when he suggested that Biden’s strategy of laying low may work because Trump will anger voters.
“The longer he stays in the background, the more dissatisfied suburban women will be [with Trump], and the more fired-up the African American community will be because, frankly, Trump is a piece of s— and is doing everything he can to foment a race war,” he told the Independent earlier this week.
