TRUMP JUSTIFIES SLAYING OF 2 KENOSHA RESIDENTS BY HIS SUPPORTER

US President Donald Trump refused to condemn a 17-year-old who killed two people during a protest in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, at a White House press briefing on Monday (Tuesday, September 1, 2020 in Manila), al-Jazeera reported.

Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men, Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and wounded a third, after attending the demonstration armed with a semiautomatic rifle last Tuesday. Rittenhouse had said he had come to the city to protect businesses from protesters, according to widely circulated mobile phone footage.

When asked if he would condemn Rittenhouse, Trump appeared to blame the victims for "violently" attacking the gunman. "He was trying to get away from them," Trump said, and Rittenhouse "fell, and then they very violently attacked him." Trump said the incident "was something that we're looking at right now and it's under investigation but I guess he was in very big trouble he [Rittenhouse] would have been, he probably would have been killed," despite the fact that a week before the incident, Rittenhouse punched a girl for protesting. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told the Associated Press (AP) earlier: "The president is not going to again weigh in on that." Trump also declined to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot seven times by a white police officer in Kenosha on August 23, 2020, paralyzing him and triggering nationwide protests.

On Sunday, Democratic candidate Joe Biden challenged Trump to "condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right". On Monday, Biden said Trump "can't stop the violence, because for years he's fomented it". He added: "His failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is," Biden said while delivering a campaign address in Pennsylvania.