Subterms
Opinion
The far right
How did the US’s mainstream right end up openly supporting vigilante terror?
Richard Seymour
The apocalyptic conspiracy theories of rightwing groups afraid of losing their power give evil a name, and offer an answer More
Concern was growing on Sunday that a tense but peaceful situation prevailing in Kenosha for the last four days and nights could be inflamed by a planned visit from Donald Trump this week, in the aftermath of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in the city last Sunday.Blake, a Black 29-year-old father, was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer in the small Wisconsin city, and his family say he is now paralyzed from the waist down.There was unrest the following night and then largely peaceful marches spiraled into chaos on Tuesday night when white armed agitators appeared on the streets and, after being praised and given water by police despite being out after curfew, appeared to confront protesters and begin shooting.A white teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was seen on video walking away after a man was shot, while others stooped to give the victim medical attention, although he later died.Then Rittenhouse was seen being chased and, as men tried to stop him, shooting again, then subsequently walking through police lines with an assault rifle around his neck and his hands up, without being apprehended.He turned himself in in Antioch, Illinois, the following day and has been charged with intentional homicide after the alleged shooting death of two white men , and other charges relating to the assault rifle he was carrying, and another shooting where a man’s arm was severely injured.Since Tuesday night, marches and rallies in Kenosha have been calm.On Saturday, Blake’s family spoke at an impassioned, peaceful rally in Kenosha. “We’re not going to stop,” Blake’s father, Jacob Sr, told the crowd. “We’re still suffering because there are two justice systems. There’s one for that white boy [Rittenhouse] that walked down the street and killed two people and blew another man’s arm off. Then there’s one for my son.”He was also critical of the police. “What gave them the right to think that my son was an animal?” he said.The US president announced on Saturday a plan to visit Kenosha on Tuesday. More
One week ago, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police department, fired at least seven shots at the back of a Black man named Jacob Blake as he opened his car door, leaving the 29-year-old father of five probably paralyzed from the waist down.After protests erupted, self-appointed armed militia or vigilante-type individuals rushed to Kenosha, including Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old who traveled there and then, appearing on the streets with an AR-15 assault rifle, allegedly killed two people and wounded a third.This is pure gold for a president without a plan, a party without a platform, and a cult without a purpose other than the abject worship of Donald J Trump.To be re-elected Trump knows he has to distract the nation from the coronavirus pandemic that he has flagrantly failed to control – leaving more than 180,000 Americans dead, tens of millions jobless and at least 30 million reportedly hungry.So he’s counting on the reliable Republican dog-whistle. “Your vote,” Trump said in his speech closing the Republican convention Thursday night, “will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans, or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens.”“We will have law and order on the streets of this country,” Vice-President Mike Pence declared the previous evening, warning “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”Neither Trump nor Pence mentioned the real threats to law and order in America today, such as gun-toting agitators like Rittenhouse, who, perhaps not coincidentally, occupied a front-row seat at a Trump rally in Des Moines in January.Pence lamented the death of federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, “shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California”, earlier this year, implying he was killed by protesters. In fact, Underwood was shot and killed by an adherent of the boogaloo boys, an online extremist movement that’s trying to ignite a race war.Such groups have found encouragement in a president who sees “very fine people” supporting white supremacy.The threat also comes from conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, the recently nominated Republican candidate for Georgia’s 14th congressional district and promoter of QAnon, whose adherents believe Trump is battling a cabal of “deep state” saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex. Trump has praised Greene as a “future Republican star” and claimed that QAnon followers “love our country”.And from people like Mary Ann Mendoza, a member of Trump’s campaign advisory board, who was scheduled to speak at the Republican convention until she retweeted an antisemitic rant about a supposed Jewish plan to enslave the world’s peoples and steal their land.Since Trump promised he would only hire ‘the best people’, 14 Trump aides, donors and advisers have been indicted or imprisonedClearly the threat also comes from hotheaded, often racist police officers who fire bullets into the backs of Black men and women or kneel on their necks so they can’t breathe. Needless to say, there was little mention at the Republican convention of Jacob Blake, and none of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor.And the threat comes from Trump’s own lackeys who have brazenly broken laws to help him attain and keep power. Since Trump promised he would only hire “the best people”, 14 Trump aides, donors and advisers have been indicted or imprisoned.Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W Giuliani – who ranted at the Republican convention about rioting and looting in cities with Democratic mayors – has repeatedly met with the pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach, whom American intelligence has determined is “spreading claims about corruption … to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party”.In addition, federal prosecutors are investigating Giuliani’s business dealings in Ukraine with two men arrested in an alleged campaign finance scheme.Trump’s new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who had been a major Trump campaign donor before taking over the post office, is being sued by six states and the District of Columbia for allegedly seeking to “undermine” the postal service as millions of Americans plan to vote by mail during the pandemic.Not to forget the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who spoke to the Republican convention while on an official trip to the Middle East, in apparent violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits officials of the executive branch other than the president and vice-president from engaging in partisan politics.You want the real threat to American law and order? It’s found in these Trump enablers and bottom-dwellers. They are the inevitable excrescence of Trump’s above-the-law, race-baiting, me-first presidency. It is from the likes of them that the rest of America is in serious need of protection. More
President rails against Joe Biden in dark address
Crowd prompts fears over Covid-19 spread
Protesters gather outside White House on convention’s final night
Sign up for our First Thing newsletter
LIVE
Updated
Play Video
Republican national convention: Trump accepts presidential nomination
Key events
Show
10.39pm EDT22:39
Trump’s speech continues dark tone of Republican convention
10.31pm EDT22:31
Trump accepts Republican presidential nomination
10.24pm EDT22:24
Trump takes the stage to accept Republican nomination
10.10pm EDT22:10
Ivanka Trump introduces her father at convention
10.00pm EDT22:00
Alice Johnson praises Trump for her commutation
9.47pm EDT21:47
Giuliani falsely accuses BLM of having ‘hijacked peaceful protests’
9.22pm EDT21:22
Protesters gather outside White House on last night of RNC
Live feed
Show
11.22pm EDT23:22
Trump made his first reference to the unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as protests continue over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
But the president did not mention the name of Blake, who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police officers.
Instead, like other convention speakers this week, Trump condemned “the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities.”
11.22pm EDT23:22
During the Democrat Convention, the words “Under God” were removed from the Pledge of Allegiance – not once, but twice,” Trump said. “The fact is, this is where they are coming from.”
The fact is, that is a bit misleading.
During the DNC, several caucuses were organized alongside the main convention.
At the LGBTQ Caucus Meeting and at the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly, the words “under God” were omitted
But during the primetime DNC broadcasts, the full Pledge of Allegiance was recited with the word God.
– Maanvi Singh
11.20pm EDT23:20
Ann Dorn, the widow of officer David Dorn who addressed the convention earlier tonight, is in the audience for Trump’s speech at the White House.
The president recounted how Dorn was fatally shot during unrest in St Louis earlier this year.
“To each of you: we will never forget the heroic legacy of Captain David Dorn,” Trump said.
11.15pm EDT23:15
“Days after taking office,” Trump said, his administration “ended the unfair and very costly Paris climate accord.”
That is not what happened.
Trump served notice that the US would withdraw from the Paris climate accord in 2019, not the day after he took office in 2017. Due to the accord’s rule of withdrawal, the US will not officially exit the agreement until 4 November this year.
Read the Guardian’s Climate Countdown series, which spotlights what the withdrawal will mean for the US:
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
at 11.16pm EDT
11.15pm EDT23:15
Repeating a line from one of his campaign commercials, Trump said, “No one will be safe in Biden’s America.”
Amid nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, the president added, “My administration will always stand with the men and women of law enforcement.”
Mike Pence delivered a similar line in his convention speech last night, and Biden responded to the vice-president in a statement today.
“Did Mike Pence forget Donald Trump is president? Is Donald Trump even aware he’s president?” Biden said in the statement.
“These are not images from some imagined ‘Joe Biden’s America’ in the future. These are images from Donald Trump’s America today. The violence we’re witnessing is happening under Donald Trump.”
Updated
at 11.15pm EDT
11.11pm EDT23:11
Trump blamed Joe Biden and the Democratic party for the recent power outages in California amid an intense heatwave.
“How can Joe Biden claim to be an ally of the light when his own party can’t even keep the lights on?” Trump said, prompting laughter from the crowd gathered on the South Lawn.
Updated
at 11.16pm EDT
11.08pm EDT23:08
Trump promised that a coronavirus vaccine would be developed by the end of this year.
“We will have a safe and effective vaccine this year, and together we will crush the virus,” the president said.
There are multiple vaccine candidates that are currently being developed, and Dr Anthony Fauci has previously said he is cautiously optimistic a coronavirus vaccine will be approved by the end of this year or early next year.
11.07pm EDT23:07
Here’s what Trump said on economic relief for Americans affected by the coronavirus crisis:
We enacted the largest package of financial relief in American history. Thanks to our Paycheck Protection Program, we have saved or supported more than 50 million American jobs. As a result, we have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major western nation, and we are recovering much faster. Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, a new record.
A bit of context here:
The PPP program expired, and the Trump administration and Republicans couldn’t make a deal with congressional Democrats to extend the program.
The US gained 9m jobs, after losing 22m as the pandemic hit.
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
at 11.13pm EDT
11.04pm EDT23:04
“We are focusing on the science, the facts and the data” on coronavirus, Trump said.
Trump has not been doing that. The Trump administration has continuously undermined science and facts in its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s my explainer from a while back:
Play Video
5:28
From miracle cures to slowing testing: how Trump has defied science on coronavirus – video explainer
– Maanvi Singh
11.01pm EDT23:01
After Democrats spent a week highlighting Joe Biden’s empathy and compassion, Trump used his convention speech to dismiss the importance of such character traits.
“The laid off workers in Michigan, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and many other states didn’t want Joe Biden’s hollow words of empathy, they wanted their jobs back,” Trump said.
Over the past four nights, a number of Trump’s advisers and family members have tried to paint him as a compassionate president, although those comments generally lacked examples of such behavior.
10.59pm EDT22:59
Trump said he “passed VA Accountability and VA Choice”. He did not.
President Barack Obama signed the Veterans Choice Act in 2014. Trump expanded it, under a 2018 law called the Mission Act.
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
at 11.15pm EDT
10.57pm EDT22:57
Trump continued his attacks against Joe Biden, painting the Democrat’s long career in government as a string of failures.
“Biden’s record is a shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime,” Trump said. “He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”
The president has already mentioned Biden’s name dozens of times in his convention speech, which is noteworthy given Biden never once said Trump’s name in his speech last week.
10.55pm EDT22:55
Some quick fact checks:
Donald Trump said this is the first time in 20 years that Nato members have increased spending. The president likes to repeat this false claim. But he’s still wrong: Nato Europe and Canada increased defense spending in 2015 and 2016, before Trump took office.
Trump touted the southern border wall, saying that 300 miles were built. That more or less true, if embellished – there’s new wall across about 245 miles of the border – but only thirty miles of wall has been erected where there was no barrier before.
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
at 10.57pm EDT
10.53pm EDT22:53
Trump repeated his outlandish claim that he has done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln.
He added, “I have done more in three years for the black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years.”
Trump apparently believes his accomplishments for African Americans exceed those of, for example, the Democratic president Lyndon Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Updated
at 10.55pm EDT
10.48pm EDT22:48
Trump praised his own record on a wide range of issues, exaggerating his accomplishments and spewing a number of falsehoods.
On immigration, Trump said, “The wall will soon be complete and it’s working beyond our wildest expectations.”
That is not true. The border wall is nowhere near complete, and Trump has built very few new miles of the wall. More
500 more members of national guard to be sent to Kenosha
Tonight’s NBA playoff games reportedly postponed over protests
Two dead in Kenosha on third night of unrest after Jacob Blake shooting
Key takeaways from RNC night two: culture wars and a pitch to women
US recorded 1,212 coronavirus deaths and 38,712 new cases
Sign up to our First Thing newsletter
LIVE
Updated More
Play Video
1:33
Democratic nominee Joe Biden says he has spoken to the family of Jacob Blake, the African American man who was repeatedly shot in the back by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
‘What I saw in that video makes me sick,’ Biden said of the footage of Blake being shot while three of his children looked on in a nearby car.
The Democratic nominee went on to urge protesters to remain peaceful and avoid ‘needless violence’. Biden repeated the words of Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, who said yesterday that her son would not want to see violence and destruction carried out in his name.
Kenosha: teen arrested over killings at Jacob Blake protests – live
Topics
Jacob Blake
Race
US policing
Protest
US politics More
On Tuesday, America heard two calls for peace and unity. The first came from the mother of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot in the back by police multiple times in front of his children, and reportedly left paralysed. After episodes of arson and looting followed peaceful protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Julia Jackson urged: “We need healing.”The second was the gaslighting speech from Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention. The woman who offered what was described as “a plea for racial unity” is the same woman who said American people wanted to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate; wore a jacket reading “I really don’t care. Do U?” on her way to visit detained children on the Texas border; and was appearing on behalf of a man who has triumphed through bigotry. She spoke at a convention seeking to press those same buttons with what one Republican political operative described as “fear porn”. Speakers have included the St Louis lawyers who brandished their guns at Black Lives Matter protestors marching past their home.The first lady’s address was – like much of the programme on Tuesday – a cynical attempt to sanitise the brand, allowing her husband and the Republicans to exploit racism while insisting it is nothing of the kind, and for voters to back them without too much discomfort. Donald Trump’s attempts to capitalise on the Black Lives Matter movement by positioning himself as the “president of law and order” who would defend white suburbs, lifting from Richard Nixon’s playbook, have so far been notably unsuccessful. The public has proved much more sympathetic towards the protests than expected.Whether that will change before November’s election is unclear. What is certain is that the spectre of American carnage that he conjures up has real and dangerous impact. Mr Trump has not invented racial divisions, police impunity, paranoia about “anti-American” forces, or a culture of people taking the law into their own hands. But he has exploited and fostered them.Hours after the convention speech, two people were shot dead and another injured at the protests in Kenosha. A group of heavily armed white men had reportedly clashed with demonstrators earlier, and the county sheriff said a “militia” had been patrolling the streets. Footage posted on social media showed what appeared to be a white man with a semiautomatic rifle firing at what are believed to be Black Lives Matter protestors. Despite the tumult, the alleged gunman is finally seen walking away with his arms raised, a weapon still dangling from his shoulder, as police tactical vehicles drive past him – a stark contrast with the treatment of Mr Blake.Words have consequences. Mr Blake’s family were calling not simply for calm, but for the transformation that the US desperately needs. “We have been watching police kill Black people for years,” his sister Letetra Widman reminded listeners. “I don’t want your pity. I want change.”The first lady’s call was for the perpetuation of the status quo. Her husband rose to power by stoking bigotry and plans to remain in power the same way. His departure alone cannot fix America’s deep-rooted problems. But another victory in November would only multiply them. More
