02 Sep 2020 Critics Can’t Blame Trump for Riots They Prevent Him from Stopping

Despite Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler claiming “[t]here is no place for looting, arson or vandalism in our city,” there have been nightly protests there – with well over a dozen incidents classified as riots causing tens of millions of dollars in property damage.

After President Donald Trump offered federal assistance to restore peace to the City of Roses, Wheeler rebuked the White House in an open letter, saying “[n]o thanks” and that “we are focused on coming together as a community to solve the serious challenges we face.”

He made this assertion as he prepares to move from his luxury condo – saving his neighbors any more of the multiple attacks on the building by the same protesters with whom he seems to think he is in good stead.

As Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper pointed out on the Fox News Channel program “Fox News @ Night”:

What we’ve been looking at is a situation where people are finding rioting, looting, arson and mayhem, and it’s caused by groups that have been around for some time. And they’ve been coddled by the left and progressives.

Horace noted that there has been “a lot of pushback” on the president’s efforts to work with mayors and governors to re-establish order and bring offenders to justice in these crime-plagued areas. And he added that even though anarchy seems to reign in cities such as Portland, Seattle and Chicago, there are a “large number of critics – both in the media and among progressives – who said that [federal assistance] was a step much too far.”

But with politicians such as Wheeler trying to put the blame for the urban unrest on President Trump, Horace remarked:

You can’t have it both ways. Either you can let the president and others… take the actions necessary to stop the problem or you can wait 90 days then say “we blame the president for his failure to stop a problem that we opposed him attempting to stop.”

In the panel discussion, liberal commentator Ethan Bearman argued that federalism precluded the president from employing resources such as the National Guard. Horace replied, “That’s not true!” He explained:

The Constitution explicitly gives the president the authority to quell insurrections. And that’s what we are seeing.

This is a legal, lawful power. And it has been exercised by presidents since Eisenhower.

Horace noted that this is even more relevant as a federal issue because there are rioters being “bused in, flying in” to engage in “illegal actions” in many of these cases.