The same corporate media that deny Joe Biden froze up and needed assistance off the stage by a former president have focused intensely on Donald Trump’s comments about Milwaukee this week.
“Donald Trump made a brazen bid for support in the vital swing state of Wisconsin on Tuesday by declaring his affection for its biggest population center, Milwaukee, just days after denigrating it as a horrible city,” the Guardian reported. This was the outlet’s main takeaway from Trump’s campaign stop in Racine, a city of about 80,000 in battleground Wisconsin. The Guardian, a leftist UK publication, reveals its bias by misspelling “center” and lacking context.
The Guardian’s report is one of many from outlets like Politico, CNN, and PBS. Milwaukee will host next month’s Republican National Convention, where Trump is expected to be nominated for a third time as the GOP’s presidential candidate. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s Justice Department is trying to imprison his political opponent.
“I love Milwaukee. I was the one that picked Milwaukee [for the convention], I have to tell you,” Trump told supporters at an open-air festival park. He accused Democrats of lying about his recent comment, where he reportedly told Wisconsin’s GOP congressional delegation, “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city,” according to Punchbowl News.
That’s what he said, confirmed by House members. But, as Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story.
A source at the meeting told me Thursday that Trump’s comment “was all about how Milwaukee handles its elections.” Such context was missing from the prepackaged stories.
The Democrat-led city is known for handling its elections poorly.
As Truth Voices and others have reported, Milwaukee has been at the center of questionable election practices, especially in 2020. Milwaukee was part of the infamous “Wisconsin-5” — the state’s largest cities — that received over $10 million in “Zuckbucks” grants for “safe elections” during COVID. These grants, funded by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, were used partly to promote get-out-the-vote efforts targeting Democrats and involved left-wing activists embedded in election offices.
Milwaukee’s election chief, Claire Woodall, oversaw a dysfunctional office with frequent delays in ballot counting. On the morning of Nov. 4, 2020, Woodall announced a batch of tens of thousands of votes, mostly for Joe Biden, helping him narrowly win Wisconsin over Trump.
“Damn, Claire, you have a flair for drama, delivering just the margin needed at 3:00 a.m.,” wrote Ryan Chew of the left-leaning Elections Group in an email to Woodall. “I bet you had those votes counted at midnight and just wanted to keep the world waiting!”
Woodall was dismissed last month by Mayor Cavalier Johnson, citing “other issues internal to the election commission office and to city government that raised concern.”
Republicans and election-integrity watchdogs remain wary of Milwaukee’s ability to administer elections fairly.
Wisconsin U.S. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, and Tom Tiffany told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Trump was referring to election integrity when he called Milwaukee “horrible.”
But U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican representing western Wisconsin, said Trump was “specifically referring to the crime” in Milwaukee.
Trump isn’t wrong. Milwaukee is a dangerous city.
While crime is down from recent years, Milwaukee set homicide records, with 224 murders in 2022, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Recent homicides include two teenage boys shot dead, and multiple shootings last Saturday left three dead and a 6-year-old injured.
Milwaukee officials blame the pandemic for the crime spike, ignoring the impact of their defund-the-police agenda and low morale among officers. Milwaukee’s crime problem is largely due to its policies and leadership, dominated by Democrats for decades.
Trump has made crime and declining quality of life in blue cities key issues in his campaign. The media dismiss him, some even calling him racist. But the victims in inner-city war zones know better.
Trump needs Wisconsin to win the election, and that’s why the Republican National Committee chose Milwaukee for its convention. But Democrat Milwaukee will likely vote for Biden. Milwaukeeans have long voted against their interests for a party that has failed them, and the election office will likely help Biden’s cause, as it did in 2020.
Clearly, Biden’s getting a lot of help these days, especially from his allies in the media.
