‘This Confederate FLAG next to Trump 2020 flag is all you need to know about the pro-Trump open Michigan rally today…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) As backlash against autocratic state governors threatened the Left’s dreams of an indefinite economic shutdown, Trump-bashing media sought to link his support for protesters to prior comments about the “very fine people” at a deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Yeah you think these are good people like in Charlottesville “Good people on both sides.” said trump of racists.They are not social distancing & no masks.They may all get sick & some may die along with their families they expose. Less people to vote for you! pic.twitter.com/6EBeh9WjLV
— Roseanne Riddick (@napierriddick) April 20, 2020
The mainstream media’s predictable, knee-jerk response began after demonstrators marched on several state capitols last week in probable swing states like Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia.
President Donald Trump, for his part, relished the efforts of freedom-loving individuals to assert their constitutional rights against blue-state leaders who have sniped at him over his federal response to the coronavirus outbreak.
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020
LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020
A White House adviser, Stephen Moore, even likened the protesters to civil-rights icon Rosa Parks, to which Trump responded that “some of the governors have gotten carried away.”
Leftist media countered by tossing around words like “insurrection,” suggesting that the president was trying to use coded dog-whistle language to activate a legion of Manchurian-candidate followers to engage in an armed uprising.
Pressed on his support for the demonstrations, Trump pointed to the First Amendment, indicating that the government may not abridge the right of people to peaceably protest.
“You’re allowed to protest,” Trump said, according to the HuffPo. “… I watched a protest and they were all 6 feet apart, I mean it was a very orderly group of people.”
“I’ve seen the interviews of people. These are great people” — asked if he’s concerned that he’s inciting violence with his tweets in support of anti-stay-at-home protesters, Trump defends the protesters and says he’s not worried about it pic.twitter.com/roLTWAL2Ik
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 19, 2020
Riffing on Trump’s praise for the social-distancing scofflaws, many on the fringe Left trotted out the Charlottesville trope.
The leftist HuffPo was among those that invoked the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally, in which far-right extremists clashed with radical leftist Antifa forces.
“Trump’s enabling response to the protesters echoed his handling of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—where neo-Nazis protested against taking down Confederate monuments in a violent white supremacist rally that left one counter-protester dead and dozens injured,” said HuffPo writer
“After the Charlottesville violence, Trump refused to single out the activity of white supremacists and instead falsely claimed that there was ‘bigotry and violence on many sides,'” she continued, falsely refuting Trump’s assertion, despite reams of supporting evidence documenting left-wing violence and bigotry.
Although the recent demonstrations were not violent—likely due to the fact that leftists counter-demonstrators were unable to leave their homes—some noted the presence of a Confederate flag as evidence of racial underpinnings.
This Confederate FLAG next to Trump 2020 flag is all you need to know about the pro-Trump open Michigan rally today. #Lansing https://t.co/RjLDHb5maF
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) April 15, 2020