The New York Times has unfairly labeled Trump protestors as violent despite being peaceful during their demonstrations in Florida.
On Tuesday, hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump gathered outside the Miami federal courthouse to protest against Trump’s arraignment.
The NYT, however, covered the protests and described them as “circus-like,” but the demonstrations were relatively calm and did not devolve into the kind of violence that was seen at the Capitol on January 6 of last year.
“The atmosphere outside the building was circuslike. There was the Uncle Sam who sped around the courthouse grounds on a two-wheeled hoverboard singing pro-Trump songs, the woman with a unicorn horn affixed to her forehead who wore an ‘Aunt-ifa’ shirt and chanted derisively about the former president, and the man in a black-and-white jail jumpsuit carrying a sign that read, ‘Lock Him Up,’” the news outlet wrote in their report.
The prosecutions of the January 6 defendants may have had a “real deterrent effect” on the Trump supporters who traveled to Miami, according to Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program.
Kleinfeld told the NYT that a lot of Trump supporters are also upset with the former president for not giving “monetary support” to the January 6 rioters who were “jailed on his behalf.”
For instance, the Proud Boys, who were founded during Trump’s first campaign for office, were urged by the former president to “stand back and standby” during a presidential debate.
Numerous Proud Boys participated in the riot on the Capitol, and federal investigators cracked down on them afterward. Enrique Tarrio, a Miami native and the former leader of the group, was found guilty of seditious conspiracy along with three of his lieutenants for their role in the attack. Authorities have also either charged or questioned dozens of other members.
It is possible that the group had no intention of attending a Miami event or that they have simply had enough of backing Trump and dealing with the fallout. Some high-ranking Proud Boys also disavowed the former president in the wake of the violence at the Capitol, accusing him of abandoning them while they were out on a limb.
