Right-wing thugs plotted to kidnap Michigan’s governor while New York authorities walked a tightrope to contain the Covid-19 virus amid Orthodox Jewish protests that escalated to violence.
President Trump’s role: He encouraged the revolting antics (conveniently, two meanings in one) of militias and even suggested that New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio is “an anti-Semitic thug.”
It is not original to decry Trump’s ongoing rhetoric that invites upheaval, though Michigan Gov. Grace Whitmer repeated the thought when interviewed by an Associated Press reporter: “The rhetoric that’s coming out of the White House is dangerous and it is emboldening American domestic terrorists. That endangers all of us and our democracy. It cannot be tolerated.”
We can wonder about the depth of Trump’s involvement. When white nationalists clogged the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 shouting “Jews will not replace us,” one of their number plowed his car into counter-protestors, killing one of them. Trump’s response? “I think there is blame on both sides…But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”
How does Trump know there are “fine people”? Is he friends with some of these beasts?
Once the Covid-19 pandemic emerged, Whitmer ordered strict lockdown steps to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Her actions produced hostile criticism from anti-government and conservative groups, and some protesters crowded into the state Capitol building in Lansing last April armed with assault weapons.
“Liberate Michigan,” Trump declared. Is he Cheerleader-in-Chief?
The president has called Whitmer “half-Whitmer” and “that woman from Michigan.”
Trump was offered the opportunity to condemn white nationalists during his Sept. 29 debate with former Vice President Joe Biden. Instead, he told them to “stand down and stand by.” Was he issuing orders?
Two ex-Marines were among 13 men accused last week of plotting to kidnap the governor and overthrow the state government. The FBI and Michigan authorities charged them with a variety of crimes that included conspiring to commit kidnapping and providing material support to terrorist activities, according to The New York Times. At least two of them participated in the state Capitol building protest last April, complete with military-style weapons.
Whitmer eerily resembles actor Marsha Mason when she portrayed a fictitious liberal California governor who is targeted for assassination in the movie Nick of Time.
Trump tweeted that Whitmer “has done a terrible job,” and griped that “she calls me a White Supremacist” instead of thanking him for the federal action in foiling the plot, the Times reports.
Our president was on a roll last week. Between struggling with his own Covid-19 infection, preparing for hearings on his Supreme Court nominee, rejecting a House proposal for Covid relief and, of course, dissing Gretchen Whitmer, he found time to place NYC’s mayor in Hitler’s league.
Trump seized on a video last week provided by actor James Woods which depicted New York City police breaking up a crowd in Brooklyn’s Borough Park celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot due to social distancing regulations, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Woods called de Blasio “an anti-Semite thug” and suggested Jews in the city face persecution resembling what Jews faced when Nazis sent them to concentration camps during World War II.
“’Rounding up the Jews’ is an optic that I would never have expected to see in my American lifetime,” Woods tweeted. “de Blasio is a criminal. No wonder he changed his name from Wilhelm. He is an anti-Semite thug piece of s—t.”
Though Woods is a Catholic who grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, maybe he identifies so strongly with us because he often portrayed Jewish characters, quite convincingly. He portrayed a Jew endangered during the Holocaust in the TV series Holocaust, an Israeli commando in Raid on Entebbe, a Jewish criminal in Once Upon a Time in America. and a half-Jewish attorney in True Believer.
Mayor de Blasio was born Warren Wilhelm, but he did not have a good relationship with his father and later switched his name, JTA explains.
Sharing Woods’ tweet, Trump asked, “Wow, what does this grim picture remind you of?”
De Blasio has his faults, among them disparaging a Jewish councilman when he correctly claimed there is no Palestine, but I have never seen any reason to label the mayor an anti-Semite.
Both de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo agreed to lockdown restrictions in Borough Park and other neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. Positivity tests of the virus were rising in these communities, mostly inhabited by Orthodox Jews who ignored social distancing rules.
Cuomo and de Blasio have had good relations with the Orthodox in the past. The lockdown had nothing to do with their religious practices but how their activities could spread the coronavirus. Orthodox Jews complained that de Blasio was softer with Black Lives Matter marchers. Yes, they should have been tougher, but that does not excuse the conduct in Orthodox communities.
Trump does not care about this, anyway. It was an opportunity to deride the Democratic governor of our fourth most populous state and the Democratic mayor of our largest city.
In so doing, Trump exploited the memory of 6 million Jews who were murdered by Hitler. How do Cuomo and de Blasio compare with modern history’s most despicable monster?
Republished from San Diego Jewish World