It’s been nearly a week since Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, but the fires set by rioters protesting Trump’s victory still rage. These riots aren’t being orchestrated in cities that Trump won, nor are they being perpetrated by people who voted for his presidency.
Quite the opposite. The riots are happening in Portland, Los Angeles, and New York City, each of which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton.
At some point, however, the Twitterati decided that it was Trump who either needed to be denounced or do some denouncing himself. At some point, the memo went out that all right-thinking people who of course voted for Hillary Clinton needed to call on Trump to denounce any and all violence going on in America. Because if the violent, anti-Trump protesters are going to listen to anyone, they’re obviously going to listen to Donald Trump.
Soooo, 5 days of violent, racist incidents since he was elected and Trump STILL won't denounce? And this isn't a story…why? Media?
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) November 13, 2016
https://twitter.com/eliyudin/status/797885950554611713
What would it cost Trump supporters to acknowledge & denounce wave of bullying and violence we're seeing? You guys won. Please speak up. https://t.co/AAMToe5Ndf
— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) November 11, 2016
In an editorial published just two days after Trump was elected to be the 45th president of the United States, the New York Times demanded that Trump “denounce the hate”:
In his victory speech early Wednesday morning, Donald Trump pledged that he ‘will be president for all Americans,’ and he asked those who did not support him ‘for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.’
Here’s some guidance right off the bat, Mr. President-elect: Those sentiments will have more force if you immediately and unequivocally repudiate the outpouring of racist, sexist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and homophobic insults, threats and attacks being associated with your name. Do this in a personal plea to people who supported your candidacy. Tell them this is not what you stand for, nor is it what your new administration will tolerate.
The Boston Globe followed up with an editorial the next day demanding the same thing using the exact same words. “Trump must denounce the outbreak of hate,” the paper’s editorialists declared.
Twitter is chock full of blue-checkmarked celebrities, journalists, and politicos calling on Trump to denounce. Denounce this. Denounce that. Denounce Trump for hiring this person. Denounce Trump for not hiring that person. Denounce, denounce, denounce.
What’s curiously missing among this deluge of denouncement demands, however, is a single demand that Hillary Clinton denounce the violent, anti-Trump protests that are being waged in her name. After all, it’s not Trump’s supporters who are tipping over cop cars, torching businesses, or beating up Trump voters. The rioters won’t listen to Trump, but they might listen to Hillary or Obama. Did Hillary Clinton make a big, public show of denouncing the violent protests raging in cities like Portland, and I just missed it? That seems to me to be the only innocent explanation for the refusal of so many of her most prominent acolytes to call on her to denounce the violence.
It’s no great leap to assume that these protesters and rioters voted for Clinton and against Trump. A huge percentage of them probably voted for Obama, too, probably twice. Yet where are the demands that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama denounce the violence of their own supporters? Where is the flood-the-zone coverage of Clinton’s and Obama’s silence, counting precisely how many minutes and hours and days have gone by without the president of the United States or the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee denouncing the heinous acts of violence being perpetrated against progressives’ cities and their residents across the country?
In Chicago, a man was dragged from his car and beaten by a violent mob in broad daylight. His crime? The rioters thought he voted for Trump. In Connecticut, a man waving an American flag and a Trump sign was beaten by two men. On Saturday, a Boston man claimed that he had his nose and eye socket broken in an argument about the election. The man posted pictures of his injuries on Instagram with the following note:
Everyone Calls Trump violent. But it’s you liberals that are the violent ones. I got in a argument with a guy; and when I said I supported trump he got his buddies and the second I was alone outside they jumped me. I thought you Hillary supports were all about love and peace and here you are crying like baby’s because she isn’t our president. Well there is a reason for that because shes crooked. And realistically it’s not trump that is violet it’s all of you. He’s our president and there is nothing you can do about it. Luckly nothing worse happened.
Little update, I have a broken nose and fractured eye socket.
If the media truly care about ending the violence and reducing the temperature of the protests around the country, shouldn’t they be calling on Clinton and Obama to explicitly denounce the protesters? Shouldn’t they be calling on Clinton’s voters to put down the torches and pitchforks? Shouldn’t Hillary Clinton be forced to denounce the violent, hateful acts being perpetrated on behalf of her candidacy?
If Clinton’s surrogates are serious about putting an end to the pointless, anti-democratic violence being waged across the country, they’ll demand denouncements from Hillary with the same vigor they mustered to demand denouncements from Trump. If they want to protect their friends and political allies in the ultra-blue cities that are being victimized by the rioters, they’ll call on Obama to demand an end to the violence.
If they don’t want an end to the violence, however, they’ll continue to stay silent. If they’re fine with the needless destruction of property and endangerment of lives, they’ll stay silent. If they’re only opposed to violence committed by their ideological opponents, they’ll keep their mouths shut.
The clock is ticking, progressives. Show us what you actually stand for. Either start demanding that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama denounce the violence, or have the courage to admit that you want the violence to continue.
