On Wednesday night, President Trump, infuriated at what is happening in Seattle, where radical protesters took over six blocks of the city to create “The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” after Seattle police left a boarded East Precinct building behind, tweeted his ire at Washington Democratic governor Jay Inslee and Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, snapping, “Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great country has never seen before. Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly anarchists must be stopped IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST.”
Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great Country has never seen before. Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stooped IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020
As The Daily Wire reported on Wednesday morning:
After a showdown between left-wing rioters and police on Sunday, Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced late Monday an effort to “de-escalate” the situation by ordering the police to pull out of the East Precinct.
“In an effort to proactively de-escalate interactions between protestors and law enforcement outside the East Precinct, Chief Best and [Seattle Police Department] officers have removed barricades surrounding the East Precinct while safely securing the facility,” Durkan said in a statement posted on social media Monday night. “…Keeping demonstrations peaceful must be a joint effort between our community members and law enforcement. I am hopeful that tonight, with these operational changes, our city can peacefully move forward together.”
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best framed the decision to pull police out of the area as an exercise in “trust and deescalation.”
Left-wing outlet Democracy Now! describes the situation in triumphant terms, reporting that “protesters are claiming victory after they established a barricaded zone around a police precinct building that had been the site of protests — and a brutal police crackdown — for eight days.” Meanwhile, the Seattle City Council is discussing “demilitarizing or defunding the police force,” including a newly submitted bill that would ban the use of chokeholds and chemical weapons.
The Daily Wire reported Wednesday evening that Inslee claimed he knew nothing about the “autonomous zone”:
Washington Democrat Governor Jay Inslee claimed on Wednesday that he has “not heard anything about” extremists declaring an autonomous zone in his state’s capitol, despite widely shared images and photos that circulated on social media and a decent amount of media coverage.
Inslee was asked during a press conference, “Governor, I’d like to ask you about what’s going on Seattle, there’s this thing called the capital autonomous zone, what’s your thought about the fact that the protesters have taken that over and are not allowing people to come and go freely?
“Well, that’s news to me,” Inslee claimed. “So, I’ll have to reserve any comment about it. I have not, I have not heard anything about that from any credible source, not that you’re not credible, it’s just like before I espouse an opinion, I should know of which I speak.”
Gov. Inslee on so-called "autonomous zone" on Capitol Hill:
"That's news to me". pic.twitter.com/L3LT86Zxgq
— Rebecca Perry (@Rebecca_Perry) June 10, 2020
In June 2019, at a Democratic presidential debate at a time when Inslee still sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nod, candidates were asked what the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States was. Inslee replied: “The biggest threat to the security of the United States is Donald Trump. There’s no question about it,” eliciting wild applause.
Big applause when Inslee says the biggest threat to the United States is Donald Trump. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/deyAY9hwWb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 27, 2019
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