August 30, 2020

During a Sunday afternoon press conference, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler took a few minutes to explain who is responsible for the violence and hate which resulted in a man being shot in downtown Portland during a parade of Trumpers in trucks shooting paintballs and tear gas.

Wheeler was blunt:

Yesterday's events began with hundreds of cars filled with supporters of the President rallying in Clackamas County and then driving through downtown Portland. They were supported and energized by the president himself.

President Trump, for four years, we've had to live with you and your racist attacks on Black people. We learned early about your sexist attitudes towards women. We've had to endure clips of you mocking a disabled man. We've had to listen to your anti-democratic attacks on journalists. We've read your tweets slamming private citizens to the point of receiving death threats, and we've listened to your attacks on immigrants. We've listened to you label Mexicans rapists. We've had heard you say that John McCain wasn't a hero because he was a prisoner of war. And now you're attacking Democratic mayors in the very institutions of democracy that have served this nation well since its founding.

Then do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence?

It's you who have created the hate and the division.

It's you who have not found a way to say the names of Black people killed by police officers, even as people in law enforcement have, and it's you who claimed that white supremacists are good people.

Your campaign of fear is as anti-democratic as anything you have done to create hate and vitriol in our beautiful country.

You've tried to divide us more than any other figure in modern history, and now you want me to stop the violence that you helped create.

What America needs is for you to be stopped, so that we can come back together as one America while recognizing that we must demand that all people, black, brown, white, every color from every political persuasion, pull together and hold all people accountable in stopping racism and violence. We together are peaceful again under new leadership that reflects who we really are. We the people of this great nation.

President Trump, you bring no peace. You bring no respect to our democracy. You, Mr. President, need to do your job as the leader of this nation, and I, Mr. President, will do my job as the mayor of this city. We will both be held accountable, as we should.

Trump was watching and live-tweeting, too while Wheeler was saying this.

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There is a lot of noise on social media right now about "retribution" by far right wing groups. And Donald Trump wants to put his brownshirts back in Portland because he thinks he will be re-elected.

Mayor Wheeler is 100 percent right.

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