Hours after Trump supporter Aaron “Jay” Danielson was murdered in the street by left-wing anarchists in his city, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler took to a podium to denounce President Donald Trump and his supporters for somehow inciting the violence.
Though Antifa has been acting unfettered in his city for several years now, and has since been joined by Black Lives Matter thugs since the death of Minneapolis criminal George Floyd in May, Wheeler somehow still contends that it is the president and his supporters who are causing the violence and anarchy in Portland.
“Yesterday’s events began with hundreds of cars, filled with supporters of the president rallying in Clackamas County and then driving through Downtown Portland. They were supported and energized by the president himself.”
Wheeler then gave a rundown on some of the fake news we’ve been inundated with since 2016:
President Trump, for four years we’ve had to live with you and your racist attacks on black people. We learned early about your sexist attitudes toward women. We’ve had to endure clips of you mocking a disabled man. We’ve had to listen to your anti-democratic attacks on journalists. We’ve read your tweets slamming private citizens to the point of receiving death threats and we’ve listened to your attacks on immigrants. We’ve listened to you label Mexicans rapists. We’ve heard you say that John McCain wasn’t a hero because he was a prisoner of war. And now, you’re attacking Democratic mayors and the very institutions of democracy that have served this nation well since its founding. Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence? It’s you who have created this hate and division.
Absent an actual plan to stem the ongoing violence in his city, Wheeler resorted to sophistry instead. “Today, we need to decide who we are and where we want to go from here,” Wheeler said. “Don’t let this be the spark that sets off an acceleration of hostilities in our beautiful city. Those are not our values.”
President Trump has repeatedly offered federal assistance to Wheeler in order to curb the ongoing violence in his city, which has been ravaged by rioting for more than three straight months. However, Wheeler has repeatedly rejected that assistance, even as his city has become almost unlivable due to the ongoing riots.
On Friday, Wheeler penned a letter to the president in which he stated in no uncertain terms that he would accept no federal assistance in dealing with the unrest.
“Dear President Trump: You said you offered to aid Portland by sending in federal law enforcement to our city. On behalf of the City of Portland: No thanks.”
The letter went on to personally blame the president for making “the situation far worse” when he sent federal law-enforcement officers to defend the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse from rioters and vandals in July. Wheeler also accused the president of a “reckless disregard for human life” because of what he called a “bumbling” response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The letter ended with an admonition to “Stay away, please.”
Later that evening, BLM activists occupied the lobby of Wheeler’s condominium complex and vowed to stay until he resigned. The invaders also demanded a complete abolition of the Portland Police Department.
Seems that nobody is very fond of Ted Wheeler these days — not even the “peaceful protesters” he is vowing to protect from Trump.
Thus far, the president has maintained a policy of allowing the local governments facing riots to deal with the situation themselves while offering federal assistance if they need it. While Democrats such as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers were loathe to accept that assistance immediately, eventually they were pragmatic enough to allow the National Guard into their cities to calm the situation. Wheeler, along with like-minded leftist mayors such as Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, have refused such help. But a Sunday tweet might signal that President Trump may be beginning to rethink his strategy.
In a tweet on Sunday, the president said, “If the incompetent Mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, doesn’t get control of his city and stop the Anarchists, Agitators, Rioters and Looters, causing great danger to innocent people, we will go in and take care of matters the way they should have been taken care of 100 days ago!”
Wheeler is facing a reelection challenge from — believe it or not — someone even further to the left than he is. Challenger Sarah Iannarone has embraced the moniker “Antifa mayor,” given to her by some in conservative media.
“I am antifa,” Iannarone tweeted last year. “I stand proudly beside the good people of this city organizing in countless ways every day to oppose hate in its myriad forms.”
The unrest in Portland and America as a whole has never been about social justice or racism or even the left’s hatred of Donald Trump. It’s all about the extreme left’s dissatisfaction with America and the American way of life. At their core, Antifa and Black Lives Matter are nothing less than communist organizations.
Photo: AP Images
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects. He can be reached at [email protected].
