One former Republican presidential candidate took to Twitter on Tuesday to warn people that he believes that President Donald Trump wants people to riot instead of peacefully protest. Joe Walsh attempted to run against Trump in the primaries for the 2020 election, and he ended his campaign in early February. However, he’s remained quite outspoken against the president.
“Remember, NOTHING scares Trump more than millions & millions & millions of Americans peacefully protesting. He’s scared to death of that. Trump WANTS people to riot, loot, burn sh*t, damage property, and hurt innocent people. He REALLY wants all that to happen,” Walsh tweeted .
The tweet received nearly 2,500 likes on the popular social media platform, and more than 750 accounts retweeted the sentiment. However, both conservatives and liberals took the former presidential candidate to the task. For some liberals, they could not overlook his prior support for Republicans, while conservatives did not appreciate him speaking out against the president.
The comments from Walsh came after several days of protests and some rioting across the United States after the death of George Floyd, who died in the custody of former Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officers on Memorial Day. On Monday, the president walked from the White House to St. John’s Church across the street to take a photograph in front of it while holding a Bible.
To clear the path, National Guard troops used tear gas to clear out peaceful protestors, according to NPR , and the move caused much controversy, especially since Trump did not pray or offer any words of condolence. The tear gas and authorities pushing protestors back came more than 30 minutes before the 7 p.m. curfew for Washington, D.C., that Mayor Muriel Bowser had set for Monday evening.
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Earlier in the day, Walsh explained his thoughts on the riots versus peaceful demonstrations in another tweet .
“To date, the protests, the rioting & the looting have all added out to hurt Trump politically. But the longer the rioting & the looting continue, the more it helps Trump politically. Peaceful protests hurt Trump. Prolonged rioting & looting help Trump.”
It appeared as if Walsh urged people to continue protesting Floyd’s death in a civil manner, and he asked them to stop rioting and looting.
Walsh wasn’t the only conservative voice to speak out against Trump in recent days as the chaos increases amid the coronavirus pandemic and the demonstrations across the country. Conservative icon George Will also encouraged voters to remove the president, as well as the GOP members of the House and Senate who have enabled him throughout his presidency.