Even as President Donald Trump loudly pledges to restore “law and order” to a Wisconsin city gripped by protests, he has remained silent on what prompted the unrest: another police shooting of a Black man.
Asked about the situation during a storm briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters earlier today, Trump focused on quelling the protests without addressing the shooting that precipitated them.
He wrote off a strike by NBA players, claiming the league had become too political after several teams declined to play Wednesday night in protest of police violence against Black Americans.
And he ended the questioning without answering whether he’d viewed the video of the incident, in which a White police officer is seen firing seven times into 29-year-old Jacob Blake’s back. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said later on in the day that the President had watched the video of Blake’s shooting.
The absence of any presidential statement about the shooting that left Blake partially paralyzed underscores the fraught approach to safety and policing Trump is adopting as he runs for reelection: while he has railed against Democratic authorities for allowing violence in their cities, he has largely brushed off the events and circumstances that led to the unrest.
White House officials said Trump is wary of commenting on incidents before the details are fully known, though Blake was shot on Sunday and police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, have offered some details leading up to the incident.
On Monday morning he was briefed on the incident by Attorney General William Barr, though details about what happened were still vague at the time, according to a senior administration official.
He was briefed additional times later on Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday the Justice Department announced a federal civil rights investigation into Blake’s shooting.
But Trump still hasn’t addressed the incident itself, choosing to focus instead on the ensuing protests and the state’s Democratic governor.
“We will put out the fire. We will put out the flame,” Trump said during his visit to FEMA, where he received a briefing on Hurricane Laura. “We will stop the violence very quickly.”
Earlier this week, Trump tweeted he would “NOT stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets.”
“TODAY, I will be sending federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha, WI to restore LAW and ORDER!” he wrote.
Later, the White House said in a statement the federal government had deployed nearly 1,000 National Guardsmen and 200 federal law enforcement personnel, including FBI and US Marshalls, to Wisconsin.
The White House has reached out to the family of Jacob Blake but has not directly had contact with them, Meadows said Thursday.
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