Richmond: Trump Running for Reelection ‘Saying I Want to Fix Everything that I Just Destroyed’

Representative Cedric Richmond (D-LA) on Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press” characterized President Donald Trump’s campaign as “saying I want to fix everything that I just destroyed.”

Richmond said, “Look, Vice President Biden has been very clear that peaceful protests are the bedrock of our democracy. But what I don’t want to do is to ever confuse or compare peaceful protesters with those committing crimes. Those are not peaceful protesters. Peaceful protesters are out there trying to make this country a more perfect union, trying to make sure that their Black and brown daughters and sons are safe and survive police encounters. Those that are out there committing crimes are not a part of those peaceful protests, and they should not be labeled that way. And I think that law enforcement has to deal with it.”

He continued, “But what was very interesting just now, when you talk to the Chief of Staff Meadows, he said that President Trump is on the side of law enforcement. Well, the question becomes, well, who’s on the side of justice? Who’s on the side of constitutional policing? It’s not about law enforcement or protesters, it’s about making sure that police are held accountable when they violate people’s constitutional rights when they shoot unarmed Black people. And if the president can convene that conversation, then I think that we would be in a better space. And so he keeps talking about what Biden’s America would look like. Well, this is Trump’s America. He has to own this moment. He has to own the incompetence around coronavirus and 180,000 American deaths, almost 6 million infections, almost 38 million jobless claims. He has to own it. This is his America. So how do you break this country and then run for re-election saying I want to fix everything that I just destroyed. And so that will be the message of the campaign, and we’re going to have to make that case. But at the same time, I think America is in a real fragile point. I think that you will hear Joe Biden speak, you will hear him try to heal this country because the president just doesn’t have it in him.”

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