Tag: Trump wants to be a dictator

A ‘Wall of Vets’ Joins the Front Lines of Portland Protests

New York Times logoMilitary veterans said they banded together to protect the free speech of demonstrators.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A week after federal officers in Portland, Ore., brutally struck a Navy veteran who said he had approached them simply to ask a question, a group of military veterans on Friday joined the front lines of the city’s growing protests.

Duston Obermeyer, a Marine Corps veteran, said he and other veterans were there to make sure federal officers did not infringe on the free speech of protesters, who numbered in the thousands.

“Our veterans are here specifically to support the rights of the protesters to protest,” said Mr. Obermeyer, who said he had deployed three times during a decade in the Marines. Continue reading.

Trump is daring us to stop him

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump’s recent reelection campaign advertisement is straight out of the plot of a horror movie. Just days after he deployed federal officers to the streets of Portland, Oregon, his campaign released a 30-second television spot featuring an elderly white woman watching on her television the news of activists demanding a defunding of police. The woman shakes her head in disapproval as she notices a figure at her door trying to enter her house. She nervously calls 911, but apparently the activists she disapproves of have been so effective in their nefarious demands that the universal emergency hotline Americans rely on now goes unanswered. The vulnerable woman drops her remote control as the intruder enters her home, and we are only left to imagine the horror of what he does to her as the words “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America” appear on the screen. In this dystopian version of America, only Trump promises law and order.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, supports the defunding of American police. He does not, and in fact, in keeping with his historic support for police, Biden has demanded increased funding for law enforcement. But Trump has already proven that he will not let truth get in the way of his desires, and therefore a little more digging on the part of voters and a little more forthright reporting on the part of journalists is necessary to understand exactly who is breaking American laws.

The paramilitary units from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that Trump has deployed to Portland have engaged in disturbing violations of human rights. They have used munitions to injure people, and acted like “thugs and goons” in the words of a Navy Veteran who was beaten with batons and pepper-sprayed in the face. They have arrested and detained people without documentation. Trump has defended their tactics saying the targets “are anarchists. These are not protesters… These are people that hate our country.” Continue reading.

Trump directs a campaign ad in Portland

At White House briefings, in far-right outlets and among Republicans, Trump’s allies have made a sound stage out of protests across four city blocks.

President Donald Trump is conjuring up an American dystopia — using the government and his supporters as producers.

At White House briefings, in far-right outlets and among Republicans, Trump’s allies have made a sound stage out of four blocks in Portland, turning it into a campaign ad for the president. On Friday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany showed a video of Portland protesters yelling obscenities at police. On Capitol Hill, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday announced he would hold a hearing on “antifa terrorism” and wrote an op-ed promising to “take back Portland.” On Fox News, pundits have turned attention to other cities, such as Chicago, that they claim are in similar situations. In short, they say, it’s the America Joe Biden would create.

The theatrical display is giving Trump the ammunition he needs to fight perhaps his most aggressive culture war against urban, liberal voters. The effort is a subset of the broader “law and order” platform he is trying to create after the coronavirus pandemic decimated the economy — previously seen by Republicans as his best selling point — and massive anti-racism protests broke out across the country. It’s a foray Trump essentially launched the day he marched from the White House to the vandalized St. John’s Church, stopping to hold up a Bible and have his photo taken. Continue reading.

Operation Diligent Valor: Trump showcased federal power in Portland, making a culture war campaign pitch

Washington Post logoPORTLAND, Ore. — As statues of Confederate generals, enslavers and other icons tumbled from their pedestals amid protests last month, President Trump issued an executive order meant to break the cascade. It enlisted the Department of Homeland Security, created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks to protect the country against external threats, to defend U.S. monuments and federal property against “anarchists and left-wing extremists” who he said are advancing “a fringe ideology.”

The order signaled Trump’s eagerness to mobilize federal power against the societal upheaval that has coursed through America since George Floyd’s death. He sought to frame and create a culture war — right vs. left, right vs. wrong — and was taking a stand at the monuments that some view as historical homages and many others view as symbols of oppression.

But Trump’s June 26 declaration came too late. The momentum of the protests was fading in many U.S. cities, and confrontations between federal authorities and civilians were becoming less frequent. Then Trump found Portland, according to administration and campaign officials. Continue reading.

WATCH: Kayleigh McEnany gets testy with CNN reporter for grilling her over Trump’s Russia call

AlterNet logoWhite House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Friday refused to provide a direct answer when asked if President Donald Trump had confronted Russian president Vladimir Putin over election meddling during a recent conversation.

“Today the nation’s top counterintelligence officials said that Russia is one of three countries that is actively working to interfere in our election. Did the president bring up election interference on the call with the Russian president yesterday?” asked CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins.

“Again, I wasn’t on the call, but the president — I was not on the call, the president — the president has taken more actions for election security than his predecessor, who gave a stand-down order when he learned about election interference, Susan Rice gave that stand-down order,” McEnany replied. Continue reading.

Sinking Trump seeks to squash GOP dissent

The Hill logoPresident Trump is seeking to squash lingering dissent within the GOP, lashing out at Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and former Bush administration official Tom Ridge after the two offered implicit and explicit criticism of the president.

The intraparty spats come as some cracks show in Trump’s typically overwhelming support among Republicans.

Polls show Trump trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by significant margins in some key battleground states, raising fears among some Republicans that the party will lose both the White House and Senate in November. A new poll on Thursday showed Trump 13 points behind Biden in Florida. Continue reading.

Trump’s ‘Operation Legend’ was supposed to combat crime. It’s produced one arrest, and some see a political stunt.

Washington Post logoFederal agents began descending in earnest on Kansas City, Mo., this week as part of an operation that will have them working with local detectives to interview suspects and witnesses and sift through evidence in an effort to quell violent crime, U.S. officials said.

The operation, in any other administration, might have been largely seen as inoffensive for a city that has experienced a massive spike in homicides from the prior year. But the timing — just after federal officers in military garb violently cracked down on racial justice demonstrators in Portland, Ore., and President Trump threatened to dispatch U.S. law enforcement to other cities — could hardly be worse.

In no small part because of Trump’s politically charged rhetoric, local activists and officials have come to view with suspicion the more than 200 agents sent to Missouri from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service and other federal agencies. Some officials said they were not consulted and do not know the precise plans. After the Trump administration announced Wednesday it would increase the federal presence in Chicago and Albuquerque, local officials there greeted the news icily. Continue reading.

A Rare Look Inside Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Draws Legal Threats

New York Times logoA new documentary peers inside the secretive world of immigration enforcement. The filmmakers faced demands to delete scenes and delay broadcast until after the election.

In early 2017, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement prepared to carry out the hard-line agenda on which President Trump had campaigned, agency leaders jumped at the chance to let two filmmakers give a behind-the-scenes look at the process.

But as the documentary neared completion in recent months, the administration fought mightily to keep it from being released until after the 2020 election. After granting rare access to parts of the country’s powerful immigration enforcement machinery that are usually invisible to the public, administration officials threatened legal action and sought to block parts of it from seeing the light of day.

Some of the contentious scenes include ICE officers lying to immigrants to gain access to their homes and mocking them after taking them into custody. One shows an officer illegally picking the lock to an apartment building during a raid. Continue reading.

Republicans Warn Against Trump’s Creation Of ‘Personal Militia’

President Donald Trump gave Democrats yet another reason to oppose his reelection when he bragged about using federal law enforcement officers against George Floyd protesters in Portland, Oregon and threatened to do the same thing in Chicago and other major cities with Democratic mayors. But some Republicans have been speaking out as well, and liberal Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent discusses their objections in his column this week.

“Under fire for dispatching federal law enforcement into cities in defiance of local leaders, in part to create TV imagery that sends an authoritarian thrill up President Trump’s leg, top officials are offering several new defenses,” Sargent writes. “All are profoundly weak, which is why senior members of previous Republican administrations are now condemning what’s happening.”

One of those Republicans is Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush. Chertoff, Sargent notes, has described Trump’s use of DHS officers as “very problematic” and “very unsettling.” Continue reading.

OIG to review “use of force” against protesters in Portland and D.C.

Axios logoJustice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Thursday his office will launch an investigation into federal agents’ “use of force” in Portland and the clearing of peaceful protestors in Lafayette Squarein Washington, D.C., including the use of chemical agents.

Why it matters: Demonstrations in Portland against police use of force have continued in the city for more than 50 days. President Trump has threatened to send federal law enforcement into other cities run by Democrats.

The big picture: House Democrats asked the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the response of federal law enforcement personnel to ongoing protests in cities across the U.S. Continue reading.