“A deadly shootout on Paris’s best-known boulevard darkened the final day of campaigning Friday in France’s pivotal presidential election, as President Trump predicted that the attack would help shape the outcome of voting Sunday, primarily benefiting far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
“Trump told the Associated Press that the assault on French police Thursday night would ‘probably help’ Le Pen, who has raised many of the same anti-immigrant and security issues that were pushed by Trump during his campaign. Trump said he was not explicitly endorsing Le Pen but that he believes she is the candidate who is ‘strongest on borders, and she’s the strongest on what’s been going on in France,’ AP reported.”
According to Robert Reich, “For Trump to use yesterday’s deadly shootout on Paris’s best-known boulevard to try to score political points for far-right Marine Le Pen – who has based her campaign on the same sort of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim hatemongering that Trump used in his campaign – is contemptible.
“And it plays right into the “war of civilizations” that Islamic extremists seek. The timing of Thursday’s attack seemed to have been linked to the election, coming just as the 11 candidates were speaking in a televised debate event before a reported audience of millions.
“Trump’s hatefulness is extending around the world. Humankind is already paying a price.”
By James McAuley
