President Donald Trump indicated Monday that his administration was ready to move if the ongoing situation in Seattle warranted outside intervention.
An area spanning some seven city blocks — including residential property and small businesses which were coopted without consent — was fenced off and at first renamed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). It has since apparently been renamed the Capitol Hill Ongoing Protest (CHOP). Police have been forced to abandon the precinct inside the zone and no moves have been made by city or state officials to put and end to the protest. (RELATED: ‘They Took Our Rights Away’: Citizen Living In Seattle’s Autonomous Zone Speaks Out)
President Donald Trump took aim at officials, Democratic Mayor Jenny Durkan and Democratic Governor Jay Inslee in particular, over what he sees as a failure to lead and to protect their citizens.
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Fox News White House correspondent noted that Trump had promised action previously if the mayor and the governor did not do something. “Are you considering taking action?” he asked.
“These people have taken over a very good part of a place called Seattle. Seattle is big stuff. That’s a major city. We have a governor who was a stiff and we have a mayor who said this is going to be a love fest. By the way, these are violent people that took it over. These are not people who are nice people,” Trump replied, referencing reports of violence within the area.
“You have a governor that doesn’t do anything about it and you have a mayor that doesn’t know she’s alive. She is talking about how it’s going to be a ‘love fest.’ If they don’t do the job I will do the job and I’ve already spoken to the attorney general about it,” Trump continued.
Roberts asked what type of action the administration might take, and Trump claimed that there were a number of options that could “solve the problem quickly” but declined to list any of the possibilities he might have in mind.
Trump then turned his sights in the media, suggesting that if the tables were turned and rightwing protesters had taken over a section of a major city the coverage would be very different.
“If the right ever took over a city, if conservative Republicans took over a city, it would be the biggest story in history,” he said. “You can’t even find stories about Seattle. It’s incredible … What I would like to see before we do something, I would like to see the press come in and cover it. Because they’re not — It’s not that they’re covering it badly, they aren’t covering it at all.”
Trump threw in a few more shots at Durkan and Inslee, saying, “We have a mayor who is scared stiff. She doesn’t know what’s happening. We have a governor that’s one of the most overrated politicians in the country. He just ran for president and he got less than 1%. He actually probably — I would’ve said less than zero but I’m not sure that’s possible. He got nothing. No votes.”
“We are all set to go,” he concluded. “The most amazing thing is how the fake news media doesn’t want to cover it. To me that’s the most amazing thing.”