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‘Kooks, the crazies, the extremists, the angry fringe’: Lincoln Project ad blames Trump for Kenosha killings

Ad connects president’s rhetoric to killings of two Black Lives Matter protesters last month

Gino Spocchia
Tuesday 08 September 2020 17:44 BST
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New attack ad blames Trump for Kenosha killings

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Donald Trump has been condemned for his endorsement of “extremist” supporters in an attack advert blaming the US president for two killings that took place in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the police shooting of an unarmed black man.

The advert, created by the Republican anti-Trump campaign group, The Lincoln Project, draws connections to the president’s rhetoric and the killings of two Black Lives Matter protesters last month.  

Mr Trump, who defended  teenager Kyle Rittenhouse following that shooting in Kenosha, was also described as being “dangerous” and someone who was “radicalising our young men to become killers.”

The minute-long advert expeclity links Rittenhouse’s alleged shooting of two people at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on 26 August to Mr Trump’s endorsement of the St Louis couple who brandished firearms at protesters in June.

As the advert points out, the killing of two people protesting the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man, came 24 hours after Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St Louis couple, addressed the Republican National Convention on 25 August.

“This is sick. This is wrong. This is dangerous,” says the Lincoln Project advert. “And as long as Trump is president, he’ll keep encouraging the kooks, the crazies, the extremists, the angry fringe. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

According to the Morning Consultant, the advert will run for the first time in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, before airing across television networks and online platforms in Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania and North Carolina later this week.

It comes after Mr Trump on Tuesday labelled Black Lives Matter protesters “thugs” and “anarchists”, and went on the attack against anti-racism demonstrators and Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent. 

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