President Donald Trump ignited something of a firestorm with a tweet that seemingly promoted violent retaliation by the military against protesters and/or looters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Twenty-four hours later, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for president, former Vice President Joe Biden, took to the social media platform himself to call for “real leadership” while presumably condemning Trump’s tweet.
Following the death of George Floyd, protests erupted in and around Minneapolis. Some of those gatherings devolved into looting and violent confrontations between protesters and police, which prompted the president’s controversial Twitter response. Floyd was a 46-year-old black man who passed away at least in part as a result of white MPD officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd pleaded for air.
“Just spoke to [Minnesota] Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way,” Trump wrote. “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
Twitter quickly made the decision to flag Trump’s tweet; it is currently only accessible if a user clicks through a warning, which states, “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
On Friday, Biden posted the following to his own Twitter feed, which likely alluded to Trump’s tweet.
“This is no time for incendiary tweets. This is no time to encourage violence. This is a national crisis — and we need real leadership right now.”
Responses to Biden’s tweet ranged from some users expressing agreement to his statement or criticism of the president, to others calling out the former vice president for the now infamous “you ain’t black” remarks he made last week. In any case, Biden’s tweet gained major traction on the platform in short order, accruing nearly 30,000 likes, 6,000 retweets and 2,000 replies in just over 30 minutes.
As reported by The Inquisitr , Trump is defending himself for the flagged tweet , inferring that it is being misread and twisted by his political rivals. The president seemingly indicated that his statement was an assessment of the situation and not a threat of violence at the hands of the military.
“Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night,” tweeted Trump. “It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It’s very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. Honor the memory of George Floyd!”