OpIndia English Editor Nupur J Sharma conducted a tell-all interview with one of India’s most prolific journalist Arnab Goswami, the Editor-in-chief and owner of the Republic TV News Network. At around 1 hour, 14 minutes and 55 seconds into the candid interview, Arnab spoke of how he felt that the Republic TV’s investigation and reporting on the Palghar mob lynching incident was still incomplete and he was not going to abandon the story despite being hounded by the Congress party for it.
Arnab Goswami is heard saying: “I feel I left the investigation half-way, I believe it’s a job not done”. Saying so, Arnab tells the OpIndia editor that “you and I should investigate it further”. Arnab furthers that “23 accused in the case have been given bail, the prosecution has been weakened, the Supreme Court is monitoring, I feel we should get back on the story”. The Republic TV editor-in-chief asseverated that the Palghar incident, where two Sadhus and their driver was brutally lynched by a blood-thirsty, frenzied mob on April 16 2020, will be picked up again and it will be pursued until it does not reach its logical conclusion.
Arnab Goswami hounded by Maha Govt after her questioned Sonia Gandhi’s silence on the Palghar lynching case
It becomes imperative to note here, that Arnab Goswami had accused the Maharashtra govt of subjecting him to “political, malicious and motivated” charges, after the latter badgered the journalist for questioning Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi’s silence on the Palghar lynching case. Multiple cases by Congress functionaries were filed against him over his comments where he questioned Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi’s silence over Palghar Sadhu lynching. 2 notices in 12 hour period for immediate interrogation was sent to him by the Mumbai police. Thereafter, the Mumbai police had interrogated the Republic TV owner for over 11 hours continuously.
However, on June 30, the Bombay High Court had stayed the FIRs filed against Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami by the Mumbai Police. The Court observed that Mumbai Police had failed to demonstrate any prima facie case against him. The Bombay High Court has ordered that no coercive actions be taken against him.
Palghar Mob Lynching incident
On April 16 2020, two Sadhus associated with the Juna Akhara, 70-year-old Kalpavrishka Giri Maharaj, and 35-year-old Sushil Giri Maharaj along with their driver 30-year-old Nilesh Telgadewere were on their way from Mumbai to Gujarat to give Samadhi to another Sadhu, when a wild and frenzied crowd of over more than 100 people attacked them at Gadakchinchale village. The villagers, who deemed them as thieves, started brutally attacking them. The police claim that their team which had rushed to the spot to rescue the 70-year-old man also came under the attack of the violent mob.
But later videos emerged which completely debunked the claim of police. Contrary to the claims, the police personnel had allegedly handed over the Sadhus to the frenzied mob, which went on to beat them to death in front of the policemen.
Reports emerged that the killing of the Sadhus may have been intentional and politically motivated. The involvement of Christian Missionary organisations and some local NCP leaders and leftists were also suspected.
After the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi threatened Czech Senate speaker Milos Vystrcil of dire consequences during his five-day trip to Taiwan, the mayor of the Reporyje district of Prague in the Czech Republic has written a strongly-worded letter to Wang.
The Chinese Foreign Minister had said, “The Chinese government and Chinese people won’t take a laissez-faire attitude or sit idly by, and will make him (Vystrcil) pay a heavy price for his short-sighted behaviour and political opportunism.” His statements came at the backdrop of the official State visit of Milos Vystricil along with his 89-member delegation to Chinese-controlled Taiwan.
The Czech Senate speaker is currently on a 5-day visit with 89 delegates to Taiwan. China refuses to identify Taiwan as a sovereign nation and has been trying to globally alienate the Taiwanese government.
Pavel Novotný demands apology from Wang Yi
Wang Yi’s comments, however, did not go down well with the Prague Mayor Pavel Novotný. In a letter addressed to Wang Yi, Novotný had demanded an apology from the Chinese Foreign Minister. A copy of the letter was posted on the official page of the Pavel Novotný.
Accusing Wang of ‘crossing the line’, he wrote, ” This was the last time you opened your mouth about the Czech Republic! Your behaviour has substantially crossed the lines of what is diplomatically acceptable. You dare to threaten the senate chairman with pay heavy price, you unmannered rude clowns!” The Prague Mayor demanded an apology from the Chinese Minister within 24 hours for his ‘shameless tweet’. “I want to have it in 24 hours on the table of Czech foreign minister,” Pavel Novotný reiterated.
“I will make you pay a heavy price,” Prague Mayor tells Chinese Foreign Minister
Warning Wang of dire consequences if he did not mend his ways, the Prague Mayor stated, “Be ashamed and acknowledge that in future even a tone which would implicate threat towards representatives of our sovereign country I will make you pay a heavy price for bullying, and you won’t like it. You will not train us from position of strength and I warn you that reaction from our side will be same even if you had invested 14x more than our friends from Taiwan instead of 14x less.”
A copy of the English translation of his letter was earlier uploaded on Twitter.
English translation of the letter by Pavel Novotný (Image Courtesy: Twitter/ Jaidev Jamwal)
Prague Mayor calls China’s warning a ‘diplomatic f*ck up’
In a rather unparliamentary tone, Pavel Novotný concluded, “Wake up. You will not sh*t on us (sic). Do not let this to be repeated. Send me the copy of the apology on email, so I can put it in the archives and forget your pathetic diplomatic f*ck up you have just made. Don’t p*ss me off. With pretending regards. Pavel Novotny, mayor of Prague-Reporyje”.
The State visit holds significance as Mylos Vystrcil is the highest-ranking official from Czech Republic to ever visit Taiwan.
Mumbai is becoming the new favorite hub of the “Azadi gang” and miscreants making derogatory graffiti across the city. Devang Dave, National Convener BJYM, has shared two tweets in which he mentioned the “Azadi” graffiti that has emerged in the city. In the second tweet, he shared images of derogatory graffiti targeting actress Kangana Ranaut, BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra, Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and ZEE News editor-in-chief Sudhir Choudhary.
We strongly object respected people be shamed this way @sambitswaraj Spokesperson for @BJP4India@KanganaTeam leading actress & women be shamed on road!
The person behind both the Azadi slogan and the derogatory graffiti is an Instagram user who goes by the handle “tylerstreetart”. His whole Instagram account is filled with morphed images, inflammatory graffiti, and anti-BJP rants.
Image shared by ‘Tyler’
In one image, he has morphed PM Modi’s picture as if he is showing the middle finger. This image is ‘liked’ by Bollywood entertainer Swara Bhaskar amongst others.
Another image by ‘Tyler’
Another image stitches image of PM Modi with German dictator Adolf Hitler.
Another such morphed image
In yet another image, he has painted a d*ck in Mahatma Gandhi’s hand.
First actress Sunny Leone, then Bollywood singer Neha Kakkar and now the Japanese manga character Shin Chan’s name has reportedly appeared on the merit list of a college in West Bengal. Shin Chan Nohara’s name appeared at the top of the BSc (Honours) merit list of Siliguri College in North Bengal, and, another famous cartoon character Doraemon was entitled as his guardian.
As the news gained traction, an official of the institution said on Monday: “The name was immediately removed and a fresh list put up on the college website. We have lodged a police complaint as it was an act of mischief.”
The BSc (Honours) merit list of Siliguri College in North Bengal, image via Siliguri Times
After names of Shin Chan and Doremon appear in merit list, college lodges complaint with WB cyber cell police
The college principal Sujit Ghosh, asserting that the college would approach the cyber-crime police in this regard, stated: “Those two names were in the provisional merit list. However, it has been removed from the final merit list. How these names came up in the merit list is being investigated. A complaint will be lodged with cybercrime police.”
According to reports, the process of compiling the merit list based on details given by the candidates during online applications was outsourced to an agency by the college. However, students’ details will be scrutinised by the authorities of the institution before the classes begin, the official said.
Jayanta Kar, on behalf of the college, stated that someone might have enrolled the names of the cartoon characters to defame the name of the college through a fake account.
Image via Siliguri Times
Bollywood singer Neha Kakkar and actress Sunny Leone’s name also appears in the merit list of college’s in West Bengal
This incident came close on the heels of Bollywood singer Neha Kakkar’s name appearing in the BA English (Honours) merit list of Malda’s Manikchak College and actress Sunny Leone’s featuring in the merit list of the reputed Asutosh college in South Kolkata.
The fact that miscreants are repeatedly succeeding in passing off actors, singers and now cartoon characters names in the merit list of reputed colleges in West Bengal is being claimed as a failure of a proper screening process for applications for admission in the colleges.
A complaint has been filed against a priest in Amraivadi area of Ahmedabad, Gujarat over allegations of molesting a minor and taking her nude video. As reported by Gujarati daily Dainik Bhaskar, he lured the minor girl who lived in Rabari Colony by making false pretences of love. He had also obtained her nude video through video call and later tried to force her to convert to Christianity.
As per the report, the priest sent this video to the minor girl’s uncle. When the girl’s parents got to know of it, they approached police station and a complaint was filed against the priest, Gulabchand.
Priest used to threaten the class 11 girl
As per the report, the priest used to threaten the girl who studies in class 11. She had visited a church nearby her place on 25th December, 2019, Christmas with her neighbour. The priest talked to the girl and asked her to bring her parents to the church. However, she did not discuss the same with her parents. Few days later, the priest’s nephew called the girl’s parents and called them to church and a month later, the girl went to the church again with her parents. Later, priest Gulabchand and his nephew also held ‘prayer’ meet with drums at the minor’s house.
Priest Gulabchand asked her to undress on video calls
The priest would call the minor on her father’s phone. He reportedly sent her a picture ‘kissing’ her and even told her ‘I love you’. He pretended to fall in love with her and would even stalk her. Whenever she would be alone, he would ask her to undress herself on video call. He then threatened to defame her if she would not agree.
Police registers case and begins investigation
A week back, the priest sent the girl’s videos to her uncle. That’s when her father got to know of all the details. 2-3 days later he reportedly sent her nude pictures again. Police has registered complaint and investigation is currently underway.
Charlie Hebdo has decided to republish cartoons of prophet Mohammed that had caused Islamic Terrorists to launch a terror attack against them in 2015 as trial against the perpetrators gets underway. “We will never lie down. We will never give up,” its director Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau said in an editorial to be published along with the cartoons in the latest edition.
“We have often been asked since January 2015 to print other caricatures of Muhammad,” the editorial team of Charlie Hebdo wrote. “We have always refused to do so, not because it is prohibited — the law allows us to do so — but because there was a need for a good reason to do it, a reason which has meaning and which brings something to the debate.”
The terror attack led to the deaths of twelve people and in subsequent days, a policewoman and four Jews were murdered. The trial will involve the allegations against the accomplices, accused of supplying the weapons and putting the terrorists in touch with ISIS apart from various other crimes. Some of France’s most renowned cartoonists were killed in the terror attack.
The cover to its latest edition shows cartoons first published by Charlie Hebdo in 2006. ‘All of this, just for that,’ says the headline on the first page. Editor-in-chief Stephane ‘Charb’ Charbonnier and cartoonists Jean Cabut, Bernard Verlhac, Georges Wolinski and Philippe Honore were murdered in the terror attack at its offices. Economist Bernard Maris, columnist Elsa Cayat, Charb’s bodyguard Franck Brinsolaro, visitor Michel Renaud and proof-reader Mustapha Ourrad also lost their lives.
The terror attack led to widespread condemnation of the attack and #JeSuisCharlie trended across social media platforms. However, a section of liberals and left-wing media and intellectuals attempted to whitewash the heinous terror attack on Charlie Hebdo, claiming that the cartoons were too offensive.
The Chinese Embassy in India has released a statement about the resent confrontation at LAC in eastern Ladakh. Answering the media query, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India, Ji Rong, said that, “Provocations of Indian troops grossly violated China’s territorial sovereignty & bilateral agreements, ran counter to efforts of both sides to ease the situation on the ground. We urge the Indian side immediately to stop any actions leading to escalation & complication.”
The Embassy statement accused India of violating China’s territorial sovereignty and trespassing on their territory.
Statement issued by Chinese Embassy in India on India-China border situation
In the statement on the Embassy’s site, they wrote that on 31st August, Indian troops violated the consensus that was reached between the two nations after multi-level engagements and negotiations. China alleged that India had ‘illegally trespassed’ the Line of Actual Control again at the southern bank of the Pangong Tso Lake and near the Reqin Pass in the western sector of the China-India border.
They added, “India’s move has grossly violated China’s territorial sovereignty, seriously violated relevant agreements, protocols and important consensus reached between the two countries, and severely damaged peace and tranquility along the China-India border areas.” According to the statement, what India has done will affect the efforts made by both sides to cool down the situation on the ground. China had gone ahead and warned India that if India does not stop all the provocation actions on the border and withdraw the troops, the situation will escalate and get complicated.
The Hindu’s pro-China report makes contradictory claims
Hours before the statement was released on the Embassy’s website, The Hindu published a report in which they claimed that China controls 1,000 sq km of area in Ladakh. The report suggested that Intelligence input provided to the Centre mentioned that China now controls 1,000 sq km of the area along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.
The Hindu article
The report quoted an unnamed official who claimed that about 20 sq km in Galwan Valley, 12 sq km in Hot Springs, 65 sq km in Pangong Tso and 20 sq km in Chushul area under Chinese control. The report further alleged that the Chinese forces control area from Finger 4 to 8 near Pangong Tso Lake. Both Indian and Chinese troops patrolled the stretch till May. It is considered to be part of the Indian side.
India took over control of strategic heights to dominate South Bank of Pangong Tso
On Monday, the Indian Army announced that on the intervening night between the 29th and 30th August, the Chinese PLA PLA “carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo” but the Indian Armed Forces personnel thwarted their nefarious intentions by pre-empting their movements on the Southern Bank of the Pangong Tso lake.
The year 2020 has been a year of mourning due to the spread of COVID-19 while also being subjected to the vagaries of human interference with nature causing severe floods as one can witness in Bihar and Odisha.
Floods have been a part and parcel of great civilisations across time and space. According to the UN, 3062 flood disasters affected 2.3 billion people across the globe in a span of 20 years from 1995-2015 and killed 157,000.
Source: UNISDR / CRED
The Indian civilzation has been witnessing floods due to the presence of the rivers of the Himalayas which are highly flood-prone by nature. The report suggests that out of the five nations most affected by hydro-climato-meteorological disasters, India had around 288 such cases in the 20 years until 2015.
Source: UNISDR / CRED
In 2019 alone, there have been around 13 flood disasters across the world and in the same year India witnessed floods affecting over 13 states due to incessant rains where around a million people faced displacement. This was the same year when Nepal and Bangladesh also suffered due to floods.
While Kerala floods of 2019 made national and international headlines, Bihar being the most flood affected state in India continued to suffer heavily in terms of life and property affecting over 8 million people spread across 13 disctricts. Similarly, in 2017, Bihar over 15 million people were affected due to floods and over. And over 8 million people have already been affected by the floods this year adding to the misery and pain that COVID-19 has unleashed along with its imposed lockdown measures ruining sources of livelihood.
Source: www.seedsindia.org
Why Bihar?
Bihar is one such state in India which has been the most flood affected and falls under the flood zone of the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin. About 73% of the state area falls under flood zone which is about 17.2% of the total flood prone area of India. 65% of the catchment area of Bihar’s rivers fall in Nepal and Tibet and 35% fall in Bihar.
Source:downtoearth.org.in
The flat topography of Bihar, with an annual average rainfall of about 1200 mm, high sedimentation make Bihar even more vulnerable to floods.
Source: NIDM, 2007
The rivers of Bihar are Ghaghra, Gandak, Budhi Gandak, Bagmati, Kamala, Bhutani Balan, Kosi and Mahananda, of which Kosi is considered to be the ‘Sorrow of Bihar’ as it causes havoc during monsoons. A sneak peak into the data of the impact of floods can be found in the tables below.
Source: Sinha, 2012
The 1990s era and 2000s caused significant loss in Bihar due to floods.
Source: ibid
The 2007 Bihar floods were one of the worst that Bihar had ever seen with a loss of property worth over six thousand million affecting around 10 million people.
The latest Bihar floodsof 2019 affected around 13 districts affecting over 8 million people and causing severe loss of property.
Financial Allocation and Spending for Bihar floods
In February, 2020 the Finance Minister, Sushil Modi presented the Budget for Bihar for 2020-21 where there was a 6% increase in allocation over previous year for irrigation and flood control. INR 400 crore has been allocated towards flood control programs. In 2019, Bihar had cited the paucity of funds in the State Disaster Response Fund and had sought release of advanced additional financial assistance under National Disaster Response Fund, and even advance release of 2nd installment of Centre’s share of SDRF in that year. Accordingly, Bihar was granted INR 400 crore under NDRF and INR 213.75 crore to SDRF.
The Capital Expenditures on Major and Medium Irrigation and Flood Control was reduced from 28,935.7 INR million to 26, 103.2 INR million. The lowest record was in 1998 which amounted to only around 1,022.8 INR million. This was the time when Bihar was ruled by Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Yadav.
What has the government been doing?
Bihar has been undertaking primarily structral measures to deal with floods such as building of embankments, channel improvement and embankment protection works. Around 5287 kms of embankments have been constructed until 2017. A total cost of around INR 12.5 billion was spent in flood protection in2018.
However, according to the report of 2008 on Kosi floods, embankments have been straigthjacketing rivers forcing rivers to change its natural course and enhancing the flood-prone land from 2.5 million hectares to 6.89 million hectares by 2004.
Source: thethirdpole.net
The Politics of Embankment
The British had embanked the Damodar Valley in Bengal in 1855 on an experimental basis for flood control, which failed miserably. Hence, they gave up the idea. Moreover, the British engineer, Bradshaw Smith informed in Patna Conference of 1937 that embankments invited disaster but he was ignored. The folly of Damodar did not deter the new poltical leaders of independent India and Bhar to propose to embank Kosi which was initially rejected by the Centre which mooted for the construction of a dam instead. The Government however lacked the resources to spend for a dam and with the floods of 1953, the issue was resolved by the sanctioning of the embankment construction. However, to give this idea a technical legitimacy, CWPC engineers were sent to China to study the impact of embankments in Hwang Ho. They cleverly ignored the thousands of instances of breach and inundation of Hwang Ho and its change of course and suggested to embank Kosi.
What must be noted is that engineers from USA, China were brought to vouch for taming Kosi while the renowned hydrological expert, Sir Claude Inglis of UK refused to certify. Interestingly, the then President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, also from Bihar had changed his anti-embankment views to appeal to Biharis to help embank Kosi. Hence began the taming of the Sorrow of Bihar which has brought in greater sorrows over the years.
This play of politics has played with innumerable lives and caused great loss of property ever since. This has also been another reason for distress outmigration from Bihar. The construction of embankments also led to the rise of criminal-politician nexus to feed on the money allocated for flood protection in Bihar and use the bricks of the Kosi project to contruct their own houses.
Source: Downtoearth.org.in
The Frankestein of corruption has hit Bihar very hard ever since the faulty project of embanking Kosi had been sanctioned in 1950s. Political corruption and poor flood management have been in Bihar ever since. Neither the Nitish led government nor the Laloo led one could extricate Bihar from the clutches of poor disaster management.
What can Bihar actually learn from international best practices?
The Kerala CM had recently visited the Netherlands post 2019 Kerala floods to understand what Netherlands, the world leader in flood management today has been upto. The ‘Room for the River project’ of the Dutch created more space for the river so that it can manage very high water levels during floods.
Source: civilsdaily.com
The Dutch government had appealed to Nitish Kumar to spare Patna Collectorate from demolition, which is one of the last remnants of dutch history in Patna, a strong collaboration can be forged between the two for flood management especially for Kosi and Gandak which were compelled to change their course over years.
Besides, the strenghtening of the Community based Information System using PPP model as in Bangladesh and seeking the expertise of the UK Environment Agency in flood managament using the latest technology measures are other examples of successful flood management initiatives which can be adopted by Bihar. In fact, the UK Agency has created a very user friendly flood mapping system which the commoners can access and use in case of any floods.
Hence, the way ahead for Bihar will be to learn from these international experiences and allow greater space for its rivers through an integrated flood management system and not meddle with their course on the advise of the skewed knowledge of the engineers or the politicians who never go to the field except during scrunity or before elections and lack the connect with the communities suffering the most from their decisions.
However, before looking abroad for lessons, Bihar government must pay heed to the recommendations of the Kosi High Level Committee and the report titled ‘Kosi Deluge: The Worst is Still to Come’ of the Fact finding mssion headed by civil society experts and change its flood policy from trying to arrest rivers to creating more space for them. For instance, the Government should check if bamboo plantation or mangrove can be encouraged in place of the banana plantation that has taken pace since 100 years in the river bank between Bhagalpur and Patna, which has also been identified as a cause of floods in the report.
Author: Akshay Barik is a labour researcher, political strategist, social media and public policy analyst by profession.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has recently been quite disconcerted with the arrest of the suspended Gorakhpur ‘doctor’ Kafeel Khan, has taken to Twitter to congratulate all the ‘justice-loving’ people and Congress workers for securing his release.
Kafeel Khan was arrested and slapped with NSA for making provocative comments during his speech on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on December 12, 2019.
She exulted over the Allahabad High Court’s order to set aside the detention of Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act (NSA) and ordering his release. Taking a jibe at the Yogi government she hoped that it would honour the Allahabad High Court’s ruling and release Kafeel Khan without any impediment.
आज इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट ने #drkafeelkhan के ऊपर से रासुका हटाकर उनकी तत्काल रिहाई का आदेश दिया।
आशा है कि यूपी सरकार डॉ कफील खान को बिना किसी विद्वेष के अविलंब रिहा करेगी।
डॉ कफील खान की रिहाई के प्रयासों में लगे तमाम न्याय पसंद लोगों व उप्र कांग्रेस के कार्यकर्ताओं को मुबारकबाद
Priyanka Gandhi writes to CM Yogi Adityanath to ‘ensure justice’ for Dr Kafeel Khan
It is pertinent to note here that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had in July, written to Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Aditynath urging him to ‘ensure justice’ for Dr Kafeel Khan. Perturbed over Kafeel’s arrest, in her letter, Vadra mentioned that Khan had already languished for more than 450 days in prison. She opined that he had ‘selflessly’ served the people in the most difficult circumstances. Vadra expressed hope that Yogi Adityanath would show his sensitivity in this case.
Gorakhpur’s Kafeel Khan arrested for his hate speech during anti-CAA ‘stir’ at AMU
For the uninitiated, Dr Kafeel Khan, on whose release the Congress leader is seen exuberating, was slapped with the National Security Act (NSA) a month and a half after he was arrested in Mumbai on January 30 for making a provocative speech in the Aligarh Muslim University campus on December 12th, 2019, inciting people against the government and CAA. Almost immediately after his hateful and inciting speech, on the night of December 15, Delhi’s Jamia Nagar and AMU had seen violent riots breaking out.
Kafeel Khan accused in a case involving the deaths of several children in Gorakhpur
Moreover, the ‘doctor’ who according to the Congress scion had ‘selflessly’ served people, was one of the accused in a case involving the deaths of several children due to disruption in the supply of oxygen at a Gorakhpur hospital in August 2017. He had taken to social media to spread false news that he had been given a ‘clean chit’ in the 2017 case in a departmental inquiry. The Uttar Pradesh government had in October initiated a fresh inquiry against him for spreading misinformation in the media and forcibly entering a hospital and trying to treat patients during his suspension period.
US President Donald Trump on the 31st of August fired back at the mainstream media in the country after journalists of the media-Democrat establishment across the country justified and whitewashed the violence unleashed by left-wing mobs and Antifa for weeks. The riots took a turn for the worse over the past week after a Trump supporter was murdered and two Antifa goons were shot dead in a separate incident.
On Monday, Donald trump was questioned about Kyle Rittenhouse who had recently shot three Antifa rioters recently after he was attacked and chased by the left-wing mob. Videos from the incident show that Antifa rioters had chased Kyle Rittenhouse first and attacked him physically when he ultimately fired from his gun in what appears to be an act of self defence.
Videos also show that one of the Antifa goons was trying to sneak up on Kyle Rittenhouse with a gun in his hand, presumably to shoot him dead, when the 17-year old fired at him injuring his hand. However, the mainstream media has proceeded to ignore all the evidence at hand and squarely blamed the young man for the violence.
Donald Trump was questioned regarding the incident on Monday. “I guess he was in very big trouble,” Trump answered. “He would have been, he probably would have been killed. But it’s under – it’s under investigation,” he added. He also said that the 17-year old was trying to get away from the mob, which he was as the videos showed, and said that the mob of Antifa goons “violently attacked him”, which they did.
The CNN journalist attending the press conference asked whether Donald Trump would condemn his own supporters who she believes contributed to the violence. This was after CNN journalists have regularly justified the looting, arson and violence across Democrat-controlled cities. The US President responded in characteristic fashion.
Donald Trump said, “I understand that they had large numbers of people that were supporters but it was a peaceful protest. And paint is a defensive mechanism, paint is not bullets. Your supporters, and they are your supporters indeed, shot a young gentleman and killed him. Not with paint, but with a bullet. I think it’s disgraceful.”
The US President was referring to the incident in Portland where one of his supporters was murdered during the violent riots in the city that has been underway for months. The murder occurred after Mayor Ted Wheeler had refused to accept Trump’s offer of federal law enforcement to quell the anarchy in the streets.
Donald trump also called out the Democrat establishment for justifying and inciting the riots. “For months, Joe Biden has given moral aid and comfort to the vandals, repeating the monstrous lie that these were peaceful protests.” Joe Biden, meanwhile, has not yet explicitly condemned Antifa and the left-wing mobs for unleashing violence across the country.
