Outgoing President Obama refused to condemn the disruptive demonstrations erupting across the country against President-Elect Donald Trump and the violent attacks on his supporters.
“I would not advise people who feel strongly or are concerned about some of the issues that have been raised over the course of the campaign, I would not advise them to be silent,” he said Thursday.
“I’ve been the subject of protests during the course of my eight years. And I suspect that there’s not a president in our history that hasn’t been subject to these protests,” he added.
Rioters across the country smashed windows, vandalized cars, set fires, torched American flags, attacked police officers, shut down major freeways, looted businesses, and more after Trump’s decisive electoral victory.
Anti-Trump rioters have also violently attacked Americans—some in what appear to be racially-motived assaults—who voted for the Republican presidential nominee.
“Anti-bullying activist” Shacara McLaurin allegedly knocked a 74-year-old man to the ground after screaming “Black Lives Matter” during an anti-Trump demonstration held at Trump Tower in New York City.
A 21-year-old Trump supporter claims anti-Trump thugs smashed his eye socket and nose outside a Massachusetts bar. The assailants allegedly called him “racist.”
Leftists attacked a homeless black woman, Denise Scott, as she stood vigil over Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star and held signs supporting Trump, including one that read, “20 Million Illegals and Americans sleep on the streets in tents. Vote Trump.”
Suspected drug traffickers in Connecticut allegedly beat a man wearing a Donald Trump pin.
A white high school girl was jumped and beaten by a student assailant at her San Francisco high school, allegedly after she said she was told, “You support Trump. You hate Mexicans.”
A mob targeted, beat, robbed, and nearly murdered Chicagoan David Wilcox after striking his car, calling him a “white boy Trump supporter,” he said.
The son of legal immigrants and Hispanic Trump supporter Feras Jabro also became the target of a “Black Lives Matter” mob attack in California, allegedly for wearing a Trump hat.