Extract from The Guardian
Michael McCormack attempts to draw comparisons between deadly storming of building and last year’s Black Lives Matter protests
Australia’s acting prime minister, Michael McCormack, has described Donald Trump’s refusal to concede defeat in the presidential election, his inflammatory tweets and the deadly storming of the US Capitol building by rioters as “unfortunate”.
McCormack, who is standing in while Scott Morrison is on leave this week, also indicated on Monday he believed Trump’s four years in office would be overshadowed by the events of last week.
But McCormack also accused Twitter of “censorship” for permanently suspending Trump’s account for the risk of further incitement of violence, and he attempted to draw comparisons between the riots and last year’s Black Lives Matter protests against racial injustice.
Amnesty International called on McCormack to withdraw the “deeply offensive” comparison.
Morrison last week condemned the rioters over the “terribly distressing” violence and he called for a peaceful transfer of power to election winner Joe Biden, but refused to be drawn on Trump’s own role in inciting the mob that stormed the US Capitol building.
Morrison’s response drew criticism from former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, who suggested it was “a bit weak” and “a bit tepid” in comparison with condemnation from other world leaders.
McCormack did not offer a view on Monday on whether Trump should be removed from office early, amid calls from Democrats for his swift impeachment and demands from several Republican senators for the president to quit immediately, saying it was “a matter entirely for the United States of America”.
“These are unfortunate events and of course many people don’t remember how you rode the horse; they remember how you dismount the horse. And it is unfortunate that this has occurred.
“But as far as Donald Trump and his presidency is concerned, and the last few days of his administration, well that’s entirely a matter for the United States of America.”
Pressed on whether Trump had incited the violence, McCormack was more direct about the president’s refusal to accept his defeat: “Again, look it’s unfortunate that comments were made on Twitter. It’s unfortunate that a decision that has been made by the American people hasn’t been accepted by him.”
McCormack said the US would continue to be one of Australia’s greatest allies under the incoming Biden administration.
The deputy prime minister questioned decisions by social media companies over the past few days to clamp down on Trump’s accounts over fears that the president’s words could be inciting violence.
“There’s been a lot of people who have said and done a lot of things on Twitter previously that haven’t received that sort of condemnation or indeed censorship. But I’m not one who believes in that sort of censorship,” McCormack said.
Later, at a media conference, McCormack adjusted his message and suggested Twitter should also take down the controversial tweet posted by a Chinese foreign ministry official of a digitally created image depicting an Australian soldier cutting the throat of a child in Afghanistan. Twitter had marked that image as sensitive media after an outcry from the Australian government in November.
“I say to the owners of Twitter that if you are going to take down the comments of [the person] who is still the American president, you need to think also about the photo, the doctored photo, the doctored image,” McCormack told reporters on Monday.
“Now that has not been taken down, and that is wrong. If you’re going to take down Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, then think very carefully and closely about also taking down that photo, which should have been taken down weeks ago.”
In a sign outspoken rightwing MPs would continue to challenge social media companies, government backbencher George Christensen said over the weekend that he would push for laws to “stop social media platforms from censoring any and all lawful content created by their users”.
On Thursday, Morrison defended his MPs’ right to “freedom of speech” in the context of misinformation about the US election result, including Christensen’s unfounded claims that Biden benefited from “dodgy votes”.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, reaffirmed calls on Morrison to condemn backbenchers Christensen and Craig Kelly for promoting unfounded conspiracy theories about the election.
“The fact that we saw last week an attempted insurrection against democracy which was encouraged, of course, by Donald Trump is, quite frankly, shocking,” Albanese told radio station 2SM on Monday.
Albanese welcomed the moves by social media companies against Trump, saying “It’s about time that people weren’t given a platform to spread hatred, to spread lies, which has had consequences for people.”
Amnesty International Australia’s Indigenous rights lead, Nolan Hunter, said McCormack should retract “his deeply offensive comments that compared the violent attacks on the US Capitol to the historic and important Black Lives Matters movement that swept the world last year”.
Hunter accused McCormack of ignoring “the hundreds of thousands of people who stood in solidarity, here and around the world, who want to make systemic racism a thing of the past”.
“To call the Black Lives Matters movement ‘race riots’ proves that the acting prime minister ignored the incredibly important message that it shared,” Hunter said.
“Australians are sick of Indigenous lives not mattering like white lives, Australians are sick of Indigenous people dying younger than non-Indigenous Australians, Australians are sick of Indigenous people being locked up.”
Morrison issued a statement on Monday saying he would continue to receive Covid-19 briefings from the chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, while taking leave until Monday 18 January.
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