1:00-1:30 AM
And I'll tell you that I had to turn it off because it's patently false. Untrue. And I don't know what the intent is - to try and smear someone - the Mayor of a city - who has said that this is not acceptable and who hasn't condoned the looting and fires and violence and the burning down of a community (she herself a native of Baltimore).
Kelly as well as others are trying to say that the Mayor asked police to give space to people who sought to create violence.
Just let that sink in for a second because yes, it is as absurd as it sounds.
And as many times is, the whole statement is actually quite more and different:
I made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech.
It's a very delicate balancing act. Because while we try to make sure that they were protected from the cars and other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to de-escalate.
I don't know how you misinterpret that.
She's simply talking about those who will abuse the power to assemble and protest - anarchy under the guise of the protests.
To push the false narrative though folks like Fox News are cutting out everything before that and making the soundbite "We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well".
Whuh?
They're using that and saying the Mayor somehow gave license to the chaos and at the same time chastising her for saying she didn't say that. For defending herself and saying that it has been taken out of context.
Her office put this out:
“What she is saying within this statement was that there was an effort to give the peaceful demonstrators room to conduct their peaceful protests on Saturday. Unfortunately, as a result of providing the peaceful demonstrators with the space to share their message, that also meant that those seeking to incite violence also had the space to operate. The police sought to balance the rights of the peaceful demonstrators against the need to step in against those who were seeking to create violence.
The mayor is not saying that she asked police to give space to people who sought to create violence. Any suggestion otherwise would be a misinterpretation of her statement.”
Let's hope there's no more confusion.