Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin's lieutenant governor and Democratic Senate nominee, made repeated comments downplaying and excusing the BLM riots that took place in Minneapolis in 2020 after the death of George Floyd.
In a lengthy Twitter thread on May 29, with Minneapolis having experienced riots for that whole week, Barnes said, "Those who are protesting this injustice are doing so in order to save this nation" and "To see a city burn on the outside is devastating but hardly compares to the implosion brought by systemic inequity and injustice."
Those who are protesting this injustice are doing so in order to save this nation, and they should be protected. To see a city burn on the outside is devastating but hardly compares to the implosion brought by systemic inequity and injustice.
— Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes (@LGMandelaBarnes) May 29, 2020
During a June 2020 episode of NBC's "Into America" podcast, host Trymaine Lee asked Mandela, "Is what we're seeing, in whole, a riot or a rebellion?"
"It’s frustration. It’s frustration. You can’t tell people how to be frustrated. I go back to the same point over, and over again. This didn't come out of nowhere...More than damage, destruction, and rebellion, it is frustration," he replied.
When riots broke out in Kenosha, Wisconsin after Jacob Blake was shot by a police officer, which the officer was later cleared of any wrongdoing, Barnes glossed over the actions of rioters and had harsher words for Kyle Rittenhouse. Over $50 million in damage was done to the small town and Rittenhouse shot three people in self-defense during the riot, killing two of them.
Barnes blamed then President Donald Trump for the Rittenhouse incident and described the rioters to Democracy Now, as "the protesters are the people who are, like I said before, the people who are trying to bring this country together, the people who are standing up and demanding an America that is truly representative and responsive to all people."
A white gunman opened fire on protesters against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two people Tuesday night. @lgmandelabarnes says "we can't even act surprised that this happened" and that the threat of white militias has been ignored for too long. pic.twitter.com/FO6HC7rvs3
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) August 26, 2020
Barnes went on to falsely claim Rittenhouse had no connections to Wisconsin and said his actions meant "We have a much bigger problem on our hands."
"We have a much bigger problem on our hands": Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin @LGMandelaBarnes on Kenosha fatal shooting suspect Kyle Rittenhouse via #WTMJ #PIX11News #Kenosha @KenoshaPolice #JacobBlake pic.twitter.com/PEy6bvHKSH
— Ava Pittman (@AvaPittmanTV) August 27, 2020
"In the wake of it all, you see community actually being built, and it is out of some of the most devastating set of circumstances that we often see community being built more holistically, in a more inclusive way, in ways that have traditionally have not happened before. We see when we have community building that isn’t inclusive, you end up with the fissures that you have that create these sort of situations that we’re dealing with now," Barnes said in the same press conference.
In a one year anniversary statement about the Kenosha riots, Barnes mourned the deaths of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosembaum "two lives cruelly taken too soon by a gunman while they marched to demand Justice for Jacob." No tweets in Barnes' Twitter thread had any condemnation for the rioters' actions.
My heart and thoughts go to Jacob Blake and his family and friends, as he continues to recover while paralyzed from the waist down. They also go to Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosembaum – two lives cruelly taken too soon by a gunman while they marched to demand Justice for Jacob.
— Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes (@LGMandelaBarnes) August 23, 2021
In a September 2020 interview, when host Henry Sanders brought up how destructive riots make people unsafe, Barnes waved it away because people need to "recognize…why people may get disruptive during protests," adding the riots were "a reckoning because people have failed to address those underlying issues."
Barnes' Senate campaign did not respond to a request for comment.