Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown Warns Democrats, Rioting Will Elect Trump

Aug. 31, 2020 (EIRNS)—Two-term African-American Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown, later elected Speaker of the California State Assembly, handed down some strong advice Aug. 29 in the San Francisco Chronicle under the headline “Willie Brown: Burning and Looting in the Name of Justice Will Hand Election to Trump,” which, though put in the local section of the daily, was nationally covered by Aug. 30: Democrats should stop calling riots “demonstrations,” because “burning and looting” will help re-elect President Donald Trump. Brown is the foremost African-American political figure in the state.

“The biggest threat to a Democratic election sweep in November isn’t the Republican in the White House, but the demonstrators who are tearing up cities in the name of racial justice,” Brown wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle. “What we need to do is have everyone, including the media, stop calling the after-dark destruction ‘demonstrations.’ ”

Brown pointed out, “The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did not cross the bridge at Selma under cover of darkness. You can’t even read a protest sign at night. The demonstrations end when the Sun goes down. After that, it’s trouble for trouble’s sake.”

The San Francisco Chronicle acknowledges that Brown has been at the center of California politics, government, and civic life for four decades, spanning the Presidencies from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush. Brown said he gave Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) her start in politics, arranging paid government jobs for her in the 1990s.

Not only has Harris been more measured than Biden, if not “neutral,” in her comments on the violence in two interviews since becoming the vice-presidential nominee; Biden also seemed, on Monday afternoon, to have gotten a message of some sort. “Rioting is not protesting,” said Sleepy Joe, as the polls tightened around him.