It’s getting harder and harder to portray violent Black Lives Matter and Antifa mobs as “peaceful” protestors, and Democrats and friendly news media outlets appear to know it.
After two months of sustained rioting and attacks on police, the narrative is shifting from innocent civil rights-oriented groups being abused by law enforcement officers, to calling out left-wing violence—to the extent they admit it exists.
The shift is almost certainly brought about by changing public opinion.
Last week, Joe Biden, the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee, accused federal law enforcement of “brutally attacking peaceful protesters” in Portland, Oregon, as they assaulted officers and tried to burn a federal courthouse to ground.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the federal officers “stormtroopers” and House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, called them “Gestapo.”
But on Monday, Joe Scarborough, a rabid NeverTrumper and MSNBC host, called the riots “self-destructive.”
“How does breaking windows at a courthouse, setting fire to a federal building, firing guns in crowds, and committing acts of vandalism forward any cause? Actually, don’t bother because there is no good answer. It is self-destructive to any cause you promote,” Scarborough tweeted.
Longtime Clinton ally and DNC operative Lanny Davis went much farther, decrying in a tweet Monday that the so-called protests were helping President Donald Trump.
Violent protesters lighting fires and using violence in Portland should wear @realDonaldTrump buttons. That is who they are helping.Progressives in Portland need to call them out, including the Mayor. ReTweet please. Don’t allow violent people help @realDonaldTrump
— Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) July 27, 2020
President Trump also noticed the shift and has taken to Twitter to seize the advantage.
“The Fake News Media is trying to portray the Portland and Seattle ‘protesters’ as wonderful, sweet and innocent people just out for a little stroll. Actually, they are sick and deranged Anarchists & Agitators who our great men & women of Law Enforcement easily control, but who…,” Trump wrote.
“…would destroy our American cities, and worse, if Sleepy Joe Biden, the puppet of the Left, ever won. Markets would crash and cities would burn. Our Country would suffer like never before. We will beat the Virus, soon, and go on to the Golden Age – better than ever before!” he continued.
Trump later retweeted the messages to his 84.2 million followers to amplify the sentiment.
But cutting through the political tit-for-tat, was the first real mainstream media foray into the activist mob violence.
Mike Balsamo, the lead Department of Justice and federal law enforcement reporter for the Associated Press, broke ranks with widespread media efforts to hide, gaslight and minimize the rioting.
Balsamo penned an exhaustive story and a 12-part Twitter thread detailing his “eye opening” weekend experience at a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon.
Balsamo said he intended to tell both sides of the controversy, but the result was a damning indictment against two-months of news coverage and Democrat officials’ previous refusal to condemn the shocking violence.
I watched as injured officers were hauled inside. In one case, the commercial firework came over so fast the officer didn’t have time to respond. It burned through his sleeves & he had bloody gashes on both forearms. Another had a concussion from being hit in the head w/ a mortar
— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) July 27, 2020
Mortars, industrial-grade fireworks, flares, frozen bottles, concrete, rocks, cans, batteries, sling-shotted ball bearings, and other dangerous items “regularly whizzed over the fence at high speeds,” he explained.
“The fear is palpable,” Balsamo added, as he recounted how federal law enforcement officers were under nightly attack, with some potentially permanently blinded by powerful lasers.
A Deputy US Marshal told me, “I am worried for my life, every time I walk outside of the building” & that feeling extends widely. They are offended by being told to get out of Portland. They live there, work daily to take violent criminals off the street & it is their city too.
— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) July 27, 2020
