SFGATE: Trump praises supporters amid deadly clashes with demonstrators

Trump praises supporters amid deadly clashes with demonstrators"
Published on August 31, 2020 at 05:09AM by David Nakamura, Matt Viser and Robert Klemko, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Sunday amplified his call for federal forces to help subdue protests in American cities, denouncing local Democratic leaders and fanning partisan tensions a day after a deadly clash between his supporters and social justice demonstrators in Portland, Ore., underscored the threat of rising politically motivated violence.

Scenes of Trump supporters firing paint and pellet guns at protesters during a "Trump cruise rally" caravan through downtown Portland - a liberal bastion that has been the site of weeks of street demonstrations - raised the specter that the nation's summer of unrest had entered a new phase in which the president's backers are rallying to defend businesses and fight back against Black Lives Matter and other groups he has labeled "anarchists" and "terrorists."

One man, thought to be a member of a pro-Trump group, was shot and killed Saturday night during the Portland unrest.

In tweeting a video of the caravan on the move, Trump called the participants "GREAT PATRIOTS!" The reaction marked a sharp contrast to his silence during a large and peaceful civil rights march on Friday in Washington that drew thousands to the National Mall, where some speakers denounced his leadership.

In a statement Sunday afternoon, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden "unequivocally" condemned the Portland shooting and accused Trump of "fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters."

"We must not become a country at war with ourselves; a country that accepts the killing of fellow Americans who do not agree with you; a country that vows vengeance toward one another," Biden said. "But that is the America that President Trump wants us to be, the America he believes we are."

The violence has escalated as Trump has seized...