President Trump on Monday defended a teenage supporter accused of killing two people during unrest in Wisconsin, and declined to condemn his supporters' use of paintballs and pepper spray against protesters in Portland, Ore., over the weekend by calling his supporters "peaceful" and saying, "Paint is not bullets."

Mr. Trump made the comments at a White House briefing, moments after he criticized his Democratic challenger, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the former vice president, for not specifically condemning protesters who back the Antifa movement when Mr. Biden criticized all forms of violence in a speech earlier in the day.

Mr. Trump defended Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old supporter of the president who was charged last week with two counts of first-degree homicide and one count of attempted homicide after he shot three protesters in Kenosha, Wis., in the unrest that has followed the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake. One of the people whom Mr. Rittenhouse is accused of shooting is said to have had his hands in the air.

"That was an interesting situation," Mr. Trump said of Mr. Rittenhouse, hours after the White House press secretary said he would not be commenting on the matter. "He was trying to get rid of — away from them and he fell and then they very violently attacked him. It is something that we're looking at right now, it is under investigation. I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed. But it is under investigation."

Asked whether private citizens should be taking up arms at protests, Mr. Trump said: "I think law enforcement should take care of everything. But we have to give our cops and police the dignity back."

At another point, he declined to criticize the actions of members of a caravan of Trump supporters in Portland, Ore., over the weekend, when they fired paintballs and aimed pepper spray at people protesting police brutality.

"I tell you what they are protesting," Mr. Trump said of his supporters, "they see a city like Chicago where 78 people were shot and 13 died, or a city like New York where the crime wave went through the roof. Or a city like Portland where the city is ablaze all the time."

— Maggie Haberman,

New York Times, August 31, 2020

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September 1, 2020

Voices4America Post Script. Trump defended Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17 shooter who killed two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Take that in. Trump defended Kyle Rittenhouse.

This is what he said about the MAGA followers who came to Portland to beat up Black Lives Matters protesters.

All this to distract from his failures as POTUS - 185,000 dead from Covid, the economy in tatters with 40 million unemployed, disapproval numbers in the 30s, sinking polls daily .

#TrumpFomentsViolence #BidenHarris2020