“Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a big thing that is happening for our country,” Trump said in Rose Garden on Friday, shortly after claiming that the economy is returning as a “ship.” missile “.
“This is a great day for him. It is a great day for everyone,” said Trump.
Trump’s observation and subsequent Twitter display, in which he promoted Beck’s interview with Owens in a storm of tweets in which he attacked his critics and elevated his supporters, once again showed the insensitivity of the president and his inability to empathize with the experience of black Americans, for whom systematic racism and police brutality are still daily events.
The observation of the President’s “big day” was bizarre, not only because of the circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death, but because the economic news of the day also highlighted the persistent gap between black and white unemployment. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the anger and energy they pursue through national protests against Floyd’s death will result in tangible and lasting changes at the federal, state and local levels. A promising sign of progress: the Minneapolis City Council voted to ban chokes on Friday, one day after Floyd’s memorial.
Although the protests drew Americans of all races, Trump refused to engage in any kind of meaningful debate over police procedures, in addition to denigrating the inhumanity of Floyd’s killing. Rather than publicly urging political changes – or asking Republican lawmakers to do so – it literally walled up the White House while glorifying the military and police’s ability to “dominate” the streets and push back protesters.
His main concern, as always, is the impact the crisis had on him as he attempted to present himself as president of public order, while addressing opponents perceived by Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser as Senator of the Alaska Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who dared to question his actions this week.
Trump’s effort to speak for Floyd on Friday came during an event set to mark the unemployment figure of 13.3% in May, a number that economists expected was closer to 20%. The President has overcome the clear inequality within the new figures: the fact that black unemployment stands at 16.8% compared to white unemployment at 12.4%.
Democrat Joe Biden touched this disparity when he responded to the president’s comments, calling them despicable.
“George Floyd’s final words – ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe’ – echoed across this nation and frankly around the world,” Biden said on Friday at Delaware State University, a historically black university in Dover, Delaware.
“In order for the President to try to put any other word into George Floyd’s mouth, I frankly think it’s despicable.”
“The fact that he did it on the day when black unemployment rose, Hispanic unemployment rose, black youth unemployment skyrocketed, tells you everything you need to know about this man and what he really cares about. “Biden said.
Trump’s reluctance to commit
Trump’s reluctance to engage any sector of the electorate beyond its base, especially at a time when it has an opening to build bridges with troubled Americans, was highlighted on Friday by its decision to venture out of the White House and visit Maine. , one of the
been less different in the country
, during a week when the nation shouted for a conversation about healing racial divisions.
Unwilling, or perhaps unable, to engage in difficult conversations with Americans on America’s racial justice issues, Trump sounded safe in Maine on Friday – speaking before a predominantly white audience in Maine’s 2nd congressional district, where 95% of the population is white.
Trump won Maine’s 2nd district by 51% to 41% of Hillary Clinton in 2016 after the district twice supported former President Barack Obama, despite losing the state as a whole. However, as Maine divides its electoral votes, Trump earned an electoral vote for his victory in the 2nd district.
Democratic representative Jared Golden launched the district in 2018 in the country’s first use of the classified choice vote for a House race, but with Trump voting again in the fall, the freshman legislature could have a competitive reelection.
Golden was the only Democrat to divide his impeachment vows, voting to condemn the president for abuse of power but not for obstacle to Congress. The Cook Political Report assesses his run for reelection a
draw lots.
During Trump’s visit to Puritan Medical Products, he touted his administration’s management of the pandemic and “thousands” of lives saved, as well as new economic figures and his team’s efforts to fuel the expansion of American manufacturing companies. The president has just hinted at protests nationwide as he sought support for his reelection campaign.
He made a vague reference to this moment as “a historic time” in the midst of comments on the pandemic.
“This is a very important time for our country. See what’s going on. But many good things are going on,” Trump told Puritan on Friday afternoon. “A very big thing happened even though today when we saw (economic) numbers like we have never seen in the history of our country. Good timing. Because people look at it and say,” Hey, this country is fantastic. ‘ “
Trump’s growing isolation is all the more surprising when polls show Biden, the former vice president, who expands his lead over Trump in polls that test their November meeting.
View Trump and Biden’s head-to-head polls
A new CNN poll survey shows that 51% of nationally registered voters support Biden, while 41% support Trump, a wider gap in favor of Biden than in April. The poll poll included the five most recent national telephone polls that measure the views of registered voters and three of the polls were conducted after Floyd was killed.
A NPR / PBS Newshour / Marist college
poll released Friday it found that 67% of Americans believe that Trump’s response to the demonstrations has heightened tensions, while 18% said they had helped reduce tensions.
The poll numbers ended a week of Trump’s self-inflicted errors in response to the protests. The most striking was the Trump administration’s shocking and autocratic rollback of peaceful protesters with smoke and pepper balls near the White House to pave the way for his embarrassing photo in front of the Episcopal Church of St. John (where he waved a Bible in air way you could wield an autographed trophy or baseball).
On Friday, in the state of Maine, Trump appeared to have no other messages to convince voters this November besides his statements that the economy is recovering, he recalls that the economy was thriving before the coronavirus hit the United States, and his argument that the administration masterfully mitigated the effects of a virus that killed more than 100,000 Americans.
“We have saved thousands upon thousands of lives,” said Trump.
During an afternoon round table discussion with a commercial fisherman in Bangor, Trump compared Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, to a “dictator” to reopen the state economy too slowly in his view.
“All states are being opened, they are making a lot of money. That’s why we had good numbers today,” said Trump. “You have a governor who doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he’s like a dictator, you know?”
Later in the day in Puritan, Trump called Maine “a great state” in his final camp for victory in the November 3 elections.
“By the way, get the other half to go with Trump,” he said, alluding to the other more liberal district in the state, which has lost double-digit numbers. “You,” he said to the audience, “don’t have to worry.”
