‘They’re stoking fears about black and brown Americans’
Establishment media have been trying to convince Americans that the protests that have cost many lives and damages estimated in the billions are mostly peaceful.
Now Democrats are rolling out the big guns to turn that issue into something for which President Trump can be blamed.
Michelle Obama has released a video in which she claims the right is “whipping up violence and intimidation” and blaming it on “what’s been an overwhelmingly peaceful movement for racial solidarity.”
It’s the president’s fault, she says.
TRENDING: How John Brennan helped keep Obama ‘scandal free’
Her video, captured and posted online by Tom Elliott of Grabien Media:
.@MichelleObama on BLM riots: Trump is “pinning [violence] on what’s been an overwhelmingly peaceful movement for racial solidarity; it’s true, research backs it up; only a tiny fraction of demonstrations have had any violence at all … What the president is doing is … racist.” pic.twitter.com/7wBsmACiCQ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 6, 2020
She states: “They’re stoking fears about black and brown Americans, lying about how minorities will destroy the suburbs, whipping up violence and intimidation and they’re pinning it all on what’s been an overwhelming peaceful movement for racial solidarity. It’s true. Research backs it up. Only a tiny fraction of demonstrations have had any violence at all. So what the president is doing is once again patently false, it’s morally wrong, and yes, it is racist. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work. Because this is a difficult time, a confusing time and when people hear these lies and crazy conspiracies repeated over and over again, they don’t know what to think. With everything going on their lives, they don’t have time to fact check … and even reasonable people might get scared.”
The damage from rioting triggered by the death of George Floyd is estimated to be $2 billion. In Minneapolis alone, about 15,000 small businesses were destroyed.
One Twitter user commented: “Look, only a tiny fraction of people at Ford’s Theater that night fired a gun. It was an overwhelmingly peaceful evening at the theater.”
Comedian Tim Young produced a video showing Obama’s speech alongside scenes of rioting and arson:
WATCH: Michelle Obama says that protests aren’t violent and Trump is lying about it… So I made a side-by-side video proving her VERY wrong. pic.twitter.com/cwC67ahBsx
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) October 6, 2020
In August, CNN was mocked for an on-air graphic describing rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as “fiery but mostly peaceful” with flames in the background.
National correspondent Omar Jimenez was live on the scene reporting the violent reaction to the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, Fox News reported.
Jimenez stood in front of a raging fire while a chyron at the bottom of the screen declared “FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING.”
The image surfaced on Twitter.
This is what a Biden Presidency will bring to your city.
Hats off to CNN for having the stamina to continue to carry water for democrats.
“Fiery but mostly peaceful protests” pic.twitter.com/hlnVX0dCZ9
— Senator Melissa Melendez (@senatormelendez) August 27, 2020
Caleb Hull, who posted the video on Twitter, wrote: “You cannot make this up … A CNN reporter is standing in front of a building engulfed in flames and CNN’s chyron reads: ‘FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING.'”
At the time, Daily Caller investigative editor Peter J. Hasson deadpanned: “reporting to you live from Pearl Harbor, where America suffered a mostly peaceful surprise attack by the Japanese empire.”
And Steve Guest recalled MSNBC’s Ali Velshi in May reporting from in front of a burning building in Minneapolis.
“I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not generally speaking unruly but fires have been started,” he said.
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi now has competition for the most ridiculous riot “reporting.”
Back in May, Velshi said, “I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not generally speaking unruly but fires have been started.”pic.twitter.com/6K72kHHno1
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 27, 2020
Commentator Mark Hemingway noted that ABC had reported, “Protesters in California set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station and assaulted officers after a peaceful demonstration intensified.”
He wrote, “Legal scholar Eugene Volokh wonders how this terminology would work in the real world: ‘You are being charged with an intensified peaceful demonstration, in the second degree. How do you plead?'”