Until recently, the media have generally operated in a state of denial that there’s been any rioting going on at all. Again and again, we see violent riots referred to as “mostly peaceful” in the context of this spring’s and summer’s gatherings.
Yes, there have been peaceful demonstrations in many cities since George Floyd’s death in police custody. But the rioting, looting, arson, and dangerous assaults on police have also been occurring the entire time. In Portland, rioting has been going on for months on a nightly basis. The claim that it has anything to do with racial justice has worn especially thin in places where the destruction has been especially acute, CHAZ, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, etc., and now add Kenosha to the list.
And that has Don Lemon worried, as he shared yesterday.
CNN’s Don Lemon is panicking over the disastrous impact that far-left riots are having on the Democrat Party. pic.twitter.com/lqZl7nuKQ6
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 26, 2020
“I think this is a blind spot for Democrats,” Lemon said to fellow CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. “What they can do — and I think maybe Joe Biden may be afraid to do it … he’s got to address it. He’s got to come out and talk about it. He’s got to do a speech like Barack Obama did about race. He’s got to come out and tell people that he is going to deal with the issue of police reform in this country and that what’s happening now is happening … on Donald Trump’s watch.”
That would already be a difficult message for Biden to sustain. After all, when it comes to police brutality and the associated civil unrest, it doesn’t really seem to matter much who the president is. Recall that Obama’s speech on race came amid riots. The Ferguson and Baltimore riots occurred when Biden was vice president, as did most of the high-profile police killings we still discuss today — Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Eric Garner. It would be silly to blame Barack Obama for such things and even sillier to claim that things are uniquely bad right now under Trump but will instantly get better when Biden takes office.
Still, the real takeaway from this exchange is the undercurrent of fear that Lemon expresses near the end, regarding the rioting — that it’s going to get President Trump reelected.
“But guess what? The rioting has to stop. Chris, as you know, and I know, it’s showing up in the polling. It is showing up in the focus groups. It is the only thing right now that is sticking.”
It’s taken them long enough to figure this out. But better late than never. Lemon is right — Biden must acknowledge that the rioting is a big problem and take a forceful stand against it. It will upset the Left of his party even to hear him admit there’s a problem, but voters in battleground states like Wisconsin and Minnesota are not going to accept a candidate who can’t come to terms with the chaos and promise to address it.
