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WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Donald Trump walked through parts of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday that were damaged last week in civil unrest that erupted after a white police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back as officers tried to arrest him.
"You have to be decisive, and you have to be tough, and you have to be strong, and you have to be willing to bring people in" to quell violence, the U.S. leader said in an exchange with law enforcement officers.
Later, at a sit-down discussion with law enforcement officials, Trump said, "You have anarchists and you have the looters and you have the rioters. You have all types. You have agitators."
Trump is engaged in political sparring with his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, over who would keep the country safe as the two head to the November presidential election. Trump attacked "reckless, far-left politicians," adding, "We must give far greater support to our law enforcement."
Trump said that in Kenosha, "Violent mobs demolished or damaged at least 25 businesses, burned down public buildings and threw bricks at police officers, which your police officers won't stand for."
"And they didn't stand for it," Trump said. "These are not acts of peaceful protests but really domestic terror."
Trump visited Kenosha, a 100,000-resident city on the shores of Lake Michigan, against the wishes of the city's mayor and Wisconsin Governor
Tony Evers, who said it was too soon as police continue their investigation of the shooting of Blake on August 23. Family members say he was left partially paralyzed.
In addition, police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing of two protesters and the wounding of a third during the street protests after the police shooting of Blake. Police have charged a teenage vigilante who claimed to be protecting Kenosha businesses from the protesters with the killings.
Watch: Trump, Biden Clash Over Violent Protests
Evers, a Democrat, sent state National Guard troops to Kenosha and later accepted a White House offer of more federal law enforcement assistance.
Trump claimed, without evidence, that the civil unrest ended when the White House said he would visit.
"This ended within an hour, and as soon as we announced we were coming and then they saw we were here," said Trump, who was accompanied to Kenosha by Attorney General William Barr.
Trump did not meet with Blake's family during his visit but emphasized several times that he had spoken with a family pastor.
As he headed to Kenosha, Trump said, "Today, I'm there for law enforcement and for the National Guard, because they've done a great job in Kenosha. They have put out the flame immediately. As soon as they came in, boom, the flame was gone. Now maybe it will start up again, in which case they will put it out very powerfully."
The president declined Monday to criticize the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teenage vigilante who is accused of fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during a street demonstration in Kenosha two nights after Blake's shooting. Rittenhouse, who claimed his goal was to protect businesses, faces five felony charges, including first degree intentional homicide.
"They very violently attacked him," Trump told reporters about Rittenhouse. "He probably would've been killed" had he not opened fire on the demonstrators.
Evers urged the president to skip Tuesday's visit to Kenosha, saying Trump's presence "will only hinder our healing. I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together."
Trump's trip to Wisconsin came as he and former Vice President Biden trade accusations about security and portray life in America under the other candidate as unsafe.
Trump announced Monday that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are launching an investigation into "left-wing civil unrest" in "Democrat-run cities," adding that federal operations cracking down on urban violence have resulted in the arrests of 200 people, including 100 in Portland, Oregon.
"In America, we will never surrender to mob rule, because if the mob rules, democracy is indeed dead," the president told reporters in the White House briefing room.
Trump, emphasizing that "we need order," spoke just hours after Biden said the president "can't stop the violence, because for years, he has fomented it."
Earlier in the day, Biden speaking in Pittsburgh, looked into the cameras during his remarks, which were carried live on the three main U.S. cable news networks, and said: "Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?"
Biden called for rioters and looters to be prosecuted and accused Trump of "rooting for chaos and violence" during the election season because he sees it as "a political lifeline."
A Biden statement late Monday faulted Trump for not repudiating Rittenhouse and urged the president to join Biden "in saying that while peaceful protest is a right - a necessity - violence is wrong, period."