Better late than never, I guess. Joe Biden has belatedly condemned the violence in Portland and Seattle on inauguration night. At least his press secretary, Jen Psaki did.
Psaki said Joe Biden “condemns violence” and supports “peaceful protests” but said, “smashing windows is not protesting and neither is looting.”
Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
Psaki was responding to a question from Fox News about why we haven’t heard anything from Biden about riots and unrest since he became president.
Q President Biden — now-President Biden condemned protests and violence on the far left and the far right before he was President. Why haven’t we heard anything directly from him about the riots in Portland and the Pacific Northwest since he was inaugurated?
MS. PSAKI: Well, he’s taking questions later this afternoon, so perhaps he will. I will say from here that President Biden condemns violence and any violence in the strongest possible terms. Peaceful protests are a cornerstone of our democracy, but smashing windows is not protesting, and neither is looting. And actions like these are totally unacceptable, and anyone who committed a crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Our team is, of course, monitoring it very closely.
Notice there was not a word about who was protesting or why.
The demonstrators, most clad in black, spray-painted anarchy symbols on buildings, broke windows and marched under a banner that read, “We are ungovernable.”
“We don’t want Biden — we want revenge for police murders, imperialist wars, and fascist massacres,” read another banner that the group marched under.
In Seattle, hours after Biden took office last week, a group of about 100 people marched in the Emerald City, where police said windows were broken at a federal courthouse and officers arrested three people.
Federal law enforcement responded to the unrest over the weekend.
During the summer’s worst violence in American cities, where massive arson and looting occurred, the Biden campaign gave pro forma criticism of the unrest while always saying, in one way or another, that the riots happened because of “systemic racism.” Big city mayors handled the protesters delicately as far as arrests were concerned. If the cops laid a finger on any of the rioters, they were accused of police brutality.
And Biden said little or nothing. After all, these were his supporters in the streets and he couldn’t very well call them what they were — violent thugs bent on destruction.
So we shouldn’t expect anything different from President Biden when it comes to riots and protesters. After all, with 25,000 national guard troops in Washington, D.C., protests — if they even happen — will likely be very orderly.