Letters

Paula Angelone, another useful tool of the Trump derangement syndrome-afflicted, railed against Donald Trump’s perceived violent rhetoric of the past as a sorry excuse for the assassination attempt last week [“American Landscape,” Letters, July 18]. Claiming “violence begets violence,” she claims that his words at Charlottsville, Virginia, and later on January 6 openly supported violence. Never bothering to read or research the full transcripts of what transpired at those events, she parrots the edited talking points of those events like any loyal sycophant.

Trump categorically condemned the white supremacists that day. He said, “But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.” Trump was referring to the opposing groups of people protesting or cheering the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee and the renaming of the eponymous park.

Trump rightly pointed out that George Washington was a slave owner, as was Thomas Jefferson, but because of political correctness the culture and history of the region was being rewritten. Trump went on to say, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally. But you have many in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay?”

The mainstream media, unsurprisingly, yet conveniently, chose to completely ignore that portion of his statement that day.

On January 6, during his speech from the Ellipse, about a two-mile walk to the Capitol building, Trump urged the crowd to be peaceful and maintain “law and order”: “Please support our Capitol Police and law enforcement.” After beseeching his supporters to “stay peaceful,” he asked the crowd preparing to march to the Capitol to go “peacefully and patriotically.”

The supporters, and Trump, were unaware of the chaos about to ensue at the Capitol, as the crowd there became a mob. Thousands of hours of video will attest to this and later show that the Capitol mob was incited by many bad actors and a very poorly managed police response gone bad.

It should not go unmentioned here that on January 6, 1961, a joint session of Congress was also convened with an alternate slate of electors for the hotly contested presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Auditors had found clear errors in vote tabulations and credible evidence of election fraud was discovered. Nixon chose the high road and did not contest the results. The Constitution allows for such a challenge — it is part of the process if invoked.

The breakdown in that process and turmoil that ensued on January 6, 2021, was a very sad day for our nation, but to claim the attack was incited by Trump that day is more compliant mainstream media messaging designed to dutifully rally the Trump derangement syndrome minions.

John Porta

Westhampton