Joe Biden must not get dragged into Trump’s American chaos
When George W. Bush visited the ruins of the Twin Towers three days after they’d come down on 9/11, it was not immediately obvious that it was politically the right thing to do. After all, the collapsed buildings didn’t just signify the scale of the calamity that had befallen America. They were, to some, a symbol of how the young administration had been caught off guard. Bush’s visit could quite have easily backfired, as photographers framed pictures of a president against the scene of his greatest failure.
We now know, of course, that didn’t happen. Bush famously stepped up and defined his presidency in one “bullhorn” moment. “I can hear you! I can hear you!” he told New Yorkers. “The rest of the world hears you! And the people – and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!” It wasn’t exactly Lincoln-class oratory and the words could have been better arranged (“soon” shifted earlier would have left the line to crescendo on the “us” of national unity). Yet it reflected Bush’s folksy yet genuine qualities as a leader. It suddenly wasn’t about politics but that deeper role that leaders are often called upon to play.
When Donald Trump visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, he arrived in the city just days after the end of a Republican National Convention that had largely tried to sell America the message that the country is on fire. The shooting of Jacob Blake, on the Sunday before the RNC, had promoted protests in Kenosha, which had formed the backdrop to the week’s politics as Trump hawked himself as “the law and order president”.
Like Bush before him, the rubble posed an opportunity for Trump, as well as a danger. Would it underline the scale of his failure, the degree to which he’s managed to fan the culture war, or might it help him project himself as a leader helping America out of this crisis?
Trump clearly believed he was in Kenosha to do the latter. “My administration coordinated with the state and local authorities to very, very swiftly deploy the National Guard,” he said, leaning into the narrative of Trump the Law-Bringer. The reality was that it was the governor who called in the National Guard after the city had descended into sectarian fighting.
After police shot Blake, protests had brought right-wing armed militia to the streets, including a 17-year old youth from Illinois, Kyle Rittenhouse, who was filmed patrolling the streets of Kenosha, armed with an AR-15. At some point in the evening, Rittenhouse found himself being pursued by a group of protestors. A gun is fired into the air, leading Rittenhouse to turn and shoot four times, fatally hitting one of the protestors in the head. The pursuit continues, with protestors identifying Rittenhouse as “the shooter”. He stumbles and somebody tries to grab his gun. He shoots that person in the chest from point-blank range. Another person is shot in the arm.
Rittenhouse escaped the scene, returned home, but later handed himself over to police. Since then, he has been lauded on the Right. Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, notably refused to condemn Rittenhouse’s actions and instead asked: “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?” The same refusal to condemn spread to the White House where Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, said the “President is not going to weigh in on that”. But when Tump did weigh in on it, he called it “a very interesting situation”.
It is so much more than an “interesting situation”, yet these are the kinds of moral ambiguities that Trump is bringing into play at the moment. Life has a complexity that doesn’t always resolve easily into absolute right and absolute wrong, and Trump understands that where you place your emphasis often reveals your political leaning.
It is impossible, for example, to defend a police officer shooting a man seven times in the back and not think it indicates a problem with lethal force in America, especially when directed towards black citizens. Yet Trump can do that so long as liberal America doesn’t acknowledge the other side of the equation, which was that of a man who didn’t stop when ordered by the police (in Lindsey Graham words “didn’t yield when he was asked to yield”) and then committed the cardinal error of reaching into a car, his hands disappearing from view.
Rittenhouse, similarly, was not meant to be on the streets and had crossed state lines with a firearm that he didn’t own. His actions killed two people, injuring a third. Yet Trump can sell a different narrative, given that events seem acutely positioned to play to underlying cultural divisions. Rittenhouse’s actions were grossly disproportionate to the threat, yet Trump can and will talk about the protestors that pursued Rittenhouse. He “probably would have been killed,” Trump reflected when questioned about the Rittenhouse, who is also, it should be noted, a Trump supporter.
The danger for Democrats is being sucked into these binary choices. It’s why both Biden and Harris have been so effective, this past week, speaking about the right to protest but also condemning the rioting and violence in unambiguous terms. So far, it seems to be working for them: Polls, via FiveThirtyEight, had Biden with an 8.4% lead going into their convention. The lead is now 7.3% coming out of the Republican National Convention. It’s a slight narrowing, though given the Republicans went second, it’s hardly a surprise and probably not enough to worry Democrats.
In fact, given the nature of the RNC – the way Trump wilfully ignored the Hatch Act by using the White House and instruments of office for political ends – the surprise is that Trump hasn’t enjoyed a bigger bump. Democrats will still be aware, however, of how well this President can shape reality to his narrative.
As Trump surveyed the rubble of Rode’s Camera Store in Kenosha, he lamented how the National Guard arrived too late. “A day earlier would have saved his store,” he said, pointing John Rode III, stood next to him. It was a powerful image to send out across America.
And that message has now been sent, meaning it’s probably too late for Democrats to expend much energy pointing out that John Rode III was no longer the store’s owner, having sold it eight years earlier. The current owner, Tom Gram, had refused to take part in the photo-op. “I think everything (Trump) does turns into a circus and I just didn’t want to be involved in it,” he said.
The President won’t worry too much about that. He’ll have already moved on from Kenosha. A few weeks ago, he used a church and a bible as a prop. This week, he’s using the suffering of a community, torn apart by the cultural war he’s been actively stoking. There is little indication that any of this is working for the Republicans, yet the President has chosen his path to November’s election. The only way forward is to turn up the fire and see if his chances improve with a little more heat.
The challenge for Joe Biden and the Democrats is not to respond in kind, but to continue to reflect what America is rather than what Donald Trump would make people believe it has become.