The Lincoln Project released a new ad Sunday praising the group of yellow-shirted mothers that sprang up after President Trump sent militarized federal agents into Portland, Oregon, forming a wall between anti-racism protesters and Trump's "faceless paramilitary thugs."
"Moms," the new ad says. "They're working moms, soccer moms, stay-at-home moms; Black, white, Latina, and Asian, straight, gay; moms who will fight for a country where their kids won't have their fundamental freedoms trampled by faceless paramilitary thugs just for speaking out against a country where random arrests and beatings are the rule of the day."
By the time the Lincoln Project released this ad, the federal agents had retreated from Portland's streets, the protests had grown much calmer, and the moms had started to break into factions. The original Wall of Moms group announced on Facebook Saturday that it had "fired" one of its primary organizers, Bev Barnum, for unspecified "violations of our social policies between Wall of Moms and the Black Lives Matter community." The tensions in the group bubbled to the surface as some moms left to form a second group, Moms United for Black Lives.
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Demetria Hester, one of the Moms United for Black Lives leaders, suggested to The Oregonian that Barnum wasn't focused enough on Black Lives Matter.
Wall of Moms filed to become a nonprofit public benefit organization on July 24, then started paperwork to become a political action committee and 501c3 federal nonprofit, the Portland Tribune reports. Barnum, listed as Wall of Moms president in at least one filing, apologized on Facebook for "not being transparent" or including all "WOM voices" in "the decision-making process."
"WOM was formed out of necessity," Barnum wrote. "The 501c3 was formed out of necessity. And finally, the WOM PAC was formed out of hope — hope that we as WOM's could impact Oregon not only with our yellow shirts, but also by supporting candidates that support human rights — most especially Black human rights."
The Lincoln Project isn't necessarily wrong about the Portland moms, but as is always true, life is more complicated than it appears in political ads.
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