Did Donald Trump Mock ‘I Can’t Breathe’?

The incident in question dates to February. So, no.

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On Saturday, former chair of the super-PAC Democratic Coalition Jon Cooper claimed that Trump was mocking “I can’t breathe,” a rallying cry of protesters of police brutality based on some of the last words of George Floyd and Eric Garner before him. Cooper’s now-deleted tweet featured a video of Trump at a rally pretending to gasp for breath and crying “I can’t breathe.”

Trump has not held a rally since early March, when he canceled public gatherings for his campaign due to concerns about coronavirus. The video in question comes, in fact, from a February 20 rally held in Colorado Springs. During the rally, Trump mocked former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his performance at a recent Democratic debate, saying that Bloomberg “choked.” Trump then pretended to be Bloomberg “choking” on-stage.

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Comments (9)
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  1. Bostonian


    I disagree with the conclusion, or at least think more context is needed.

    "I can't breath" has been widely used since Eric Garner's death in 2014, and the president ought to be aware of the significance of that phrase. He may not be or he may not have intended a connection, but it's not unreasonable to assume that many of those in attendance made the connection and at least thought it was intentional.

    Connecting the video to the George Floyd is obviously inaccurate, but I watched the video in February and immediately drew the connection to the BLM movement. It's like hearing "Make _____ Great Again" — no matter the context, we know the reference. The President was clearly going for comedy and a good comedian would use a reference like this—one that fits in the context of the joke but refers to something in popular culture or an earlier part of the act without explicitly drawing attention to it.

    At very least the reference to February in the subtitle should be removed, since the common use of the phrase by BLM pre-dates the video by several years and that makes the subtitle itself is misleading—it is possible he was mocking the phrase and the BLM movement, but the video predates the current protests.

    I don't know the mind of the President, but at very least it was an exceptionally poor choice of words, which could reasonably lead critics and supporters to believe he said it intentionally. I think that is a more fair and objective conclusion.

    Also worth noting (since I think it's easy to forget) that if this was unintentional, past Presidents would have apologized.

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    Tammy Herbert

    THis is the stuff that makes it so hard to trust anything anyone says. It's exhausting to reach every details so you really do stop listening. I really don't know how anyone can believe anything they hear anymore, unless its from one of very few voices that can be trusted.

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  3. Scroop Moth

    Although the Tweet was incorrect about the object of Trump’s cruelty, it was accurate in its characterization of Trump himself. The Tweet did Trump no wrong.

    Fact checkers, in my opinion, should praise speakers who delete, correct and append. People aren’t naturally meticulous, and we should’t assume deception without some sort of demonstration. On the other hand, no mercy for obstinate lying!

    I told my cop friend that he shouldn’t arrest people for lying to him if they retract. He thought that was a terrible idea. Maybe so. But Tweets aren’t statements to officers of the court.

    The worst thing about Trump’s malice is the way he breaks down social controls and draws audience members in camera range to betray unbecoming and shameful emotions. What a bastard, is right!

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    Ian L

    Things like this annoy me. I don’t like Trump. He does a ton of absurd & disgusting things. Why is it necessary to make up extra absurd & disgusting things?All you do is lend credence to his supporters’ defenses of him. Just stop.

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    VladimusPrime

    Meh. Who would take the bet that Donald Trump won't make fun of a man being crushed to death by the police to entertain his supporters? In another week he will be pushing the theory that the whole Floyd incident was a conspiracy paid for by George Soros and that Mr. Floyd was a paid actor like those Sandy Hook kids. Heck, you can see this narrative bubbling up in the Texas GOP. The fact that Republican officials are actively spreading it means it is already widely disseminated among the rank and file. And Trump always gives the most disgusting elements of his base what they want.

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  6. George Russell

    Worth mention that "In 2015, Jon served as National Finance Chair for Draft Biden 2016"? https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jon-cooper-8#section-overview. This observation is not intended as a defense of Trump. It is more about the important role that sending out slime on social media has taken in campaign skirmishing, apparently on all sides.

    COLLAPSE

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    Mudskipper

    This kind of deliberate misrepresentation bugs the crap outta me.

    Since Cooper deleted his tweet, I'm going to guess that he was taken in by someone else's post/tweet and just uncritically tweeted this out. People have to learn that you can't trust 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 on social media, even if it comes from your side and even if it seems completely plausible to you. If you care about truth more than partisanship (and I hope most of us do), always check the validity of something you pick up on social media before you pass it along.

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    Picov Andropov

    The sad thing is that nobody needs to spin things that Trump says to damage his image. What he does (like in this video clip mocking Bloomberg) is disgusting enough.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Dick Robinson

      get real

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