Anne Applebaum, a staff writer for The Atlantic, claimed on Sunday that businesses in major cities across the U.S. are boarding up their windows ahead of election days because of President Donald Trump.
Applebaum fired off her take on Twitter and garnered more than 32,000 likes and nearly 10,000 retweets on the post within 24 hours.
“When conservatives celebrated Trump’s election 4 years ago, did they know that in 2020 we would board up shops, prepare for riots and the arrival of militias, game out ways he might steal the election, protest aggressive vote suppression? This is what he has done to America,” Applebaum said. “Plus gum up the US postal service, incite supporters to violence …”
When conservatives celebrated Trump's election 4 years ago, did they know that in 2020 we would board up shops, prepare for riots and the arrival of militias, game out ways he might steal the election, protest aggressive vote suppression? This is what he has done to America.
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) November 1, 2020
Many of the users interacting with Applebaum’s tweet pointed out that despite her claim, the vast majority of mob violence over the summer and leading up to the election has been associated with left-wing groups such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
“(1) Shops are being boarded up in preparation for Democrats rioting; (2) Democrats are gaming out ways of taking the White House (see John Podesta); (3) Democrats are already claiming if he wins, it’s because of phantom voter suppression,” The Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro responded.
(1) Shops are being boarded up in preparation for Democrats rioting;
(2) Democrats are gaming out ways of taking the White House (see John Podesta);
(3) Democrats are already claiming if he wins, it's because of phantom voter suppression. https://t.co/WSxSGKZiZW— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 2, 2020
“A good example of how elites on the left have normalized political violence from others on the left — and the resultant destruction of property and peace, and possibly the republic itself,” The Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway said.
A good example of how elites on the left have normalized political violence from others on the left — and the resultant destruction of property and peace, and possibly the republic itself. https://t.co/PoipbmeJUu
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 2, 2020
“Yes. Those of us who have watched the left march far leftward over the past 10 years could have predicted that by 2020 you guys would have become full-on violent communist revolutionaries — and that has nothing to do with Trump,” Allie Beth Stuckey, host of “Relatable,” said.
Yes. Those of us who have watched the left march far leftward over the past 10 years could have predicted that by 2020 you guys would have become full-on violent communist revolutionaries—and that has nothing to do with Trump. https://t.co/vlnIA7GAJt
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) November 2, 2020
Business owners in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., and other locales have covered their windows and storefronts with boards ahead of election day expecting riots and looting to break out pending the outcome of the election. Over the summer, hundreds of riots ravaged the United States’ largest cities after the death of George Floyd, a black man, while he was in police custody in Minneapolis.
The riots almost entirely spawned from Black Lives Matter marches, often with the encouragement of members of Antifa, a decentralized anarchic group. At times, violence between left-wing demonstrators and right-wing counter protesters has broken out, though the clashes have made up a small part of the violence.
During the summer riots, which some termed the “1619 Riots” after The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, who led the creation of the project, defended the rampant looting and property destruction that was ripping apart U.S. cities. Hannah-Jones’ project was criticized as ahistorical and flawed by a number of historians.
“Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence … I think any reasonable person would say we shouldn’t be destroying other people’s property, but these are not reasonable times,” Hannah-Jones said.