Former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday downplayed the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, calling out the recent vocal but largely peaceful protests on college campuses. He described the wave of pro-Palestinian protests as a “riot.”
An avowed neo-Nazi plows his car into a crowd of counter-protesters during a violent confrontation in Charlottesville, killing one woman and injuring nearly 40 others. Earlier, hundreds of white supremacists marched through the city holding torches and chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”
Current campus protests have resulted in dozens of arrests, but there have been no reports of serious violence.
“I always said Joe Biden ran because of Charlottesville,” Trump said of the 2020 election in a post on his social media site, peppered with random capital letters. “If that's the case, then he's done a really bad job, because Charlottesville is a 'peanut' compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests happening across our country right now. .”
Trump also repeatedly attacked President Biden, saying he “hates Israel and hates Jews,” adding, “The problem is that he hates Palestinians even more, but he just doesn't know what to do.” “Don't you know?” he added. !?”
Representatives for the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment. The Biden campaign also did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump, who led the civil unrest sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020, sought to downplay aspects of his presidency that drew widespread anger and criticism.
In the aftermath of Charlottesville, Trump repeatedly drew moral equivalence between white supremacists who brandished swastikas, Confederate flags and “Trump/Pence” signs and peaceful protesters. “There are very fine people on both sides,” he said.
At the root of Charlottesville's gathering of neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, and white supremacists was a racist conspiracy theory called the Great Replacement Theory. The idea is that elites, sometimes manipulated by Jews, seek to “replace” and disenfranchise white Americans. The theory's increased prominence in far-right circles has sparked racist terrorist attacks around the world, including several mass shootings in the United States.
Mr. Biden has faced protests and opposition to his presidential campaign in recent months from Americans who sympathize with the plight of Palestinians and are angry at the United States for providing weapons to Israel in the fighting in Gaza. Trump's social media posts on Wednesday sought to portray many of these protesters as rioters, while also inciting anger among protesters by claiming Biden hates Palestinians. Aimed at.
Trump also repeatedly insulted Jews who vote for Democrats and Biden, saying they hate their religion and Israel.
The campus demonstrations have also included hate speech and expressions of support for Hamas, the Gaza Strip militant group that attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people. In response to these attacks by Hamas, Israel has waged war in Gaza, killing more than 34,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Biden this week condemned the demonstrations as having an anti-Semitic bent, but also expressed sympathy for the Palestinians.
“I condemn the anti-Semitic protests,” Biden told reporters Monday. “I also blame those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians.”