From: januarybaybee@gmail.com   
      
   I guess we now know who directs all those "thugs and hoodlums".  Trump - the   
   biggest thug of them all.   
                                                        ================   
      
   Trump refuses to denounce violent actions by right-wing agitators   
      
      
    (CNN)President Donald Trump on Monday pointedly declined to condemn the   
   actions of his supporters in Portland, Oregon, and Wisconsin following a   
   string of violent clashes.   
      
   Speaking at the White House, Trump said Kyle Rittenhouse -- who faces homicide   
   charges as well as a felony charge for attempted homicide in Kenosha,   
   Wisconsin -- "probably would have been killed" had he not acted, claiming that   
   the 17-year-old had been "   
   very violently attacked."   
      
   Trump claimed that video he had seen showed that Rittenhouse "was trying to   
   get away from them, I guess, it looks like."   
      
   "It's something that we're looking at right now, and it's under investigation,   
   but I guess he was in very big trouble, and he would have been -- he probably   
   would have been killed," he continued, "but it's under investigation."   
      
   Social media accounts believed to belong to Rittenhouse portray a young White   
   man with an affinity for guns who supports "Blue Lives Matter" and Trump.   
   Asked if he agreed with armed vigilantes like Rittenhouse taking to the   
   streets, Trump said he'd "like    
   to see law enforcement take care of everything," but didn't condemn   
   vigilantism.   
      
   Trump has embraced a hard-line "law and order" mantle that he believes   
   benefits him politically, even as he confronts a national reckoning over   
   systemic racism in police departments and an outcry over violent police   
   tactics.   
      
   The President, who plans to visit Kenosha on Tuesday, then launched into a   
   lengthy defense apparently aimed at police officers, who he says sometimes   
   make mistakes.   
      
   "We don't want to have, when somebody makes a mistake, he chokes, or in some   
   cases you have bad cops, we have to take care of that. In other cases, they   
   choke. They're under -- they have a quarter of a second," he said.   
      
   "A quarter of a second to make a decision, and sometimes they make the wrong   
   decision. If they make the wrong decision, you know, if they make the wrong   
   decision, in the other direction, they're probably dead."   
      
   He added that "weakness" from Democrats was stopping leaders from putting an   
   end to violence in their cities.   
      
   Trump also claimed that his supporters were using paintballs as "a defensive   
   mechanism" when they rolled through the streets of Portland, spraying a form   
   of pepper spray and firing paintballs at protesters over the weekend.   
      
   "They had large numbers of people that were supporters, but that was a   
   peaceful protest," Trump said in a response to a question from CNN's Kaitlan   
   Collins, "and paint is not -- and paint as a defensive mechanism. Paint is not   
   bullets."   
      
   "Your supporters, and they are your supporters indeed," he continued to   
   Collins, "shot a young gentleman who -- and killed him. Not with paint. But   
   with a bullet. And I think it's disgraceful. These people they protested   
   peacefully."   
      
   The President said his supporters were protesting "when they turn on   
   television or read whatever they may be reading," and see violence in cities   
   like Chicago or New York.   
      
      
   CNN Updated 8:49 PM ET, Mon August 31, 2020   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)