US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that the FBI should stop investigating an incident in which his supporters were seen surrounding a Biden campaign bus in Texas, leading Democrats to cancel an event there.
The president’s tweet came hours after the FBI confirmed that it was “aware of the incident and investigating.”
On Sunday night, Trump retweeted a screenshot of the FBI statement, adding: “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!”
Photo: AP
An FBI spokesperson said that the bureau had no comment on the president’s tweet.
Trump’s tweet come as tensions remain high between the president and FBI Director Christopher Wray, and as Trump has pressed the US Department of Justice and FBI to act against his rivals, including former US vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate.
The president has also told people around him that he is frustrated with Wray over his public statements on issues such as voting fraud, Russian election interference and Antifa, and has discussed the possibility of removing Wray if he wins re-election.
In videos posted on Twitter, a group of cars and pickup trucks — many adorned with large Trump flags — can be seen riding alongside the campaign bus on Friday, and at times boxing it in, as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin.
At one point, one of the pickup trucks can be seen colliding with a sport utility vehicle that was driving behind the bus.
Neither Biden nor his running mate, US Senator Kamala Harris, was aboard the bus. The campaign canceled an event later in the day.
On Saturday, Trump tweeted a video of his supporters following the Biden campaign bus, adding: “I LOVE TEXAS!”
Texas Democratic Party chairperson Gilberto Hinojosa did not directly address the incident, but said that people should “ignore the noise and go vote.”
“Voting is the only thing that matters right now,” he said in a statement.
“We’ve never had anything like this. At least we’ve never had a president who thinks it’s a good thing,” Biden said during a campaign event in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Trump’s tweet on Sunday underscored the larger effort by the Trump administration to spotlight and crack down on protest-related violence, especially in cities run by Democratic mayors in an effort to showcase what Trump says is his law-and-order prowess.
Trump has derided protesters and played up the violence around protests, although the majority of them have been peaceful.
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