President Trump labeled the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin “domestic terrorism” during his visit to the battleground state on Tuesday after last week’s destructive protests.
A backdrop of burned out buildings and destruction greeted the president as he toured Kenosha, WI despite the objections of some state and local leaders.
Violent protests have been taking place in the city after police shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back on August 23.
President Trump says police are sometimes under tremendous pressure and criticized calls to defund them.
“We have to condemn the dangerous anti-police rhetoric,” the president said. “It’s getting more and more, it’s very unfair. You have some bad apples, we all know that, and those will be taken care of through the system.”
When asked about systemic racism in policing, the president said the real problem is the rioters.
“Well, you know, you just keep getting back to the opposite subject,” said Trump. “We should talk about the kind of violence that we’ve seen in Portland and here and other places. It’s tremendous violence.”
In the battleground state of Wisconsin, where current polls show the president trailing Joe Biden, the president promised federal resources for police and small businesses to help the city rebuild.
“We will provide one million dollars to the Kenosha law enforcement so that you have some extra money to go out and do what you have to do,” the president explained.
“I’m also providing nearly $4 million to support these small businesses that I talked about today that got burned up, burned down. And we’re going to be providing over $42 million to support public safety statewide, including direct support for law enforcement and funding for additional prosecutors to punish criminals and resources to provide services to victims of crime.”
As violent protests continue, the Department of Justice is looking into who is funding the rioting happening in cities across the country. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said people are being flown from city to city to take part in the violence.
“We had about 175 arrests in Kenosha, almost a hundred of them were from out of state, so we know they’re moving around,” Wolf told Fox News. “We’ve seen them in DC and Sacramento and elsewhere. They’re organized. We’ve seen similar tactics being used in Portland and others across the country as well.”
The Department of Homeland Security will assist in the probe.
Meanwhile, according to Oregon Live, in Portland where nightly, violent protests are approaching 100 days in a row, the city’s mayor is moving after protests outside his residence.
Ted Wheeler, who is also the city’s police commissioner, has been criticized for failing to control months of violent protests in his city. He now says it is best that he finds a new place to live after protesters set fires and broke windows at his condo building.