Who’s Inciting Violence: Trump or Democrats?

President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Coronavirus Task Force, speaks to members of the press Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, in the James S. brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen)

The Manhattan Contrarian is giving readers a fitting challenge. Francis Menton (aka the MC) presents six of what he feels could be considered the most concerning statements from Trump’s speech.

Francis Menton also gives credit to Ann Althouse. On 8 January, Ms. Althouse went through the transcript of Trump’s speech and selected the statements that she characterized as the “most violent” (in reverse order).

You can decide for yourself whether in fact they are “violent” at all.

1. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.
2. Use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal…. We will not let them silence your voices.
3. The Republicans have to get tougher. You’re not going to have a Republican party if you don’t get tougher.
4. [W]e’re going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed, and we’re not going to stand for that.
5. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.
6. We’re not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen.
7. Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Below, Mr. Menton mixed in various statements from prominent Democrats and Progressives regarding leftist mob violence with President Trump’s six statements.

• Democrat Congresswoman Avanna Pressley (MSNBC, August 15, 2020): a time when violent riots were occurring around the country: “Make the phone calls, send the emails, show up. You know, there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.”
• Donald Trump 6 January 6 speech: We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (July 2020 interview with NY’s Hot 97 radio station) “I believe injustice is a threat to the safety of all people. Because once you have a group that is marginalized . . . they have no choice but to riot.”
• Donald Trump, 6 January: “We will not let them silence your voices.”
• Donald Trump, 6 January: “[W]e’re going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed, and we’re not going to stand for that.”
• VP-Elect Kamala Harris (July 2020 interview with NY’s Hot 97 radio station) “And everyone beware, because they’re [violent protests] not gonna stop….They’re not gonna let up. And they should not. And we should not.”
• Donald Trump, 6 January: “We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2018 interview:“I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be. . . .”
• Donald Trump, 6 January:“We’re not going to let it happen.”
• Ex-NFL quarterback Coin Kaepernick (in a tweet on May 28, 2020.): “The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back!” (A few days later, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey announced that he was giving #3 million to Kaepernick.)
• Donald Trump, 6 January: “Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Mr. Menton asks if Trump’s statements are really more of an “incitement to violence” than the statements of Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, Pelosi and Harris? “You just have to understand that there is good mob violence and bad mob violence.

It all depends on which side the rioters are aligned.