President Donald Trump is heading to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to talk to the police and responders helping curb and clean up after the violent protests to "increase enthusiasm" and "love and respect for our country."
"That's why I am going, because they did a fantastic job," Trump told reporters Monday during the daily press briefing. "As soon as a I called and told them, 'let's go,' the whole problem stopped.
"That was, what, 6 days ago."
Trump also offered an explanation for why he had no plans to speak with Jacob Blake, the Black man left paralyzed after being shot seven times by a police officer trying to detain him.
"I thought it would be better to not do anything where there are lawyers involved," Trump said. "They wanted me to speak, but they wanted to have lawyers involved, and I thought that was inappropriate, so I didn't [agree to] to do that.
"But I did speak with the pastor of the family. It was a fine man, a wonderful man, and I think we had a great talk. And I may at some point do that."
Trump said he rejected that overture, but added "I gave my best regards."
Ben Crump, an attorney for Blake, told MSNBC earlier Monday he had not been contacted by the White House regarding a potential meeting, The Hill reported.
When pressed on why Trump had not condemned the counter-protesters in Portland, Oregon, firing rubber bullets at protesters, Trump called out a CNN reporter for not addressing the Trump supporter shot and killed in that city.
"Your supporters, and they are your supporters indeed, shot a young gentleman who — and killed him, not with paint but with a bullet," he told a CNN reporter. "And I think it's disgraceful — these people, they protested peacefully. They went in very peacefully."
Trump said the counter-protesters are protesting the media failing to condemn violence in Democrat-run cities across the United States.
"When people turn that on, and they see that, they say, 'this is not our country,'" Trump added.
Trump then suggested Kenosha protest shooter Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense when he killed two attackers and injured a third.
"It was something that we're looking at right now, and it's under investigation," he said. "But I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed. It's under investigation."
Trump clarified he "would like to see law enforcement take care of everything" instead of counter-protesters escalating the violence in Democrat-run cities seeking to diminish police amid social unrest.
"We have to give our cops back, our police back their dignity," he said. "They're very talented people, they're tough, they're strong, they can do the job, but we've taken it away."
Trump lamented sometimes police "choke" when pressed by dangers in "split-second decisions."
"If they make the wrong decision in the other direction, they're probably dead," Trump said. "So, they choke, sometimes, and that goes on the evening news for weeks. And the thousands and tens of thousands great things they do, nobody covers that. Nobody writes about that.
"We have to stop this horrible left-wing ideology that seems to be permeating our country, and basically it's weakness. It's weakness on behalf of Democrat politicians."
Trump noted, "Republicans, we don't have problems."
"You take a look at our cities, our cities are doing very well," Trump continued, pointing specifically to Gov. Greg Abbott's Texas. "They're safe. They're secure."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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