Warning

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts."
"It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement."

   The president made the first comment in reference to the civil unrest in American cities after the death of a man under a police officer's knee. The second was made in an attempt to play down the widespread negative reaction to the first, and after Twitter flagged the first as "glorifying violence."
   The president later denied knowing the history of the first quote. It was used by several Deep South segregationist state officials in the 1960s as a warning to civil rights demonstrators. The warning phrase was used by Miami police chief Walter Headley, who reportedly borrowed it from Eugene (Bull) Connor, public safety commissioner in Birmingham, Alabama. The phrase was also used by presidential candidate George Wallace in 1968.
   The president's defense doesn't hold up, and for two reasons: He has claimed often in the past of having the world's greatest memory, and the second comment makes no sense. When is a fact not a statement? And when is something that is spoken not a statement? Unless he meant to say it was an opinion, in which case he should have said so.
   American voters expect their elected leader to have good communication skills. This one does not.