Aug. 31, 2020 3:45p
(WGTD)---President Trump tweeted Monday morning that if it wasn't for him calling in the National Guard, Kenosha would be no more.
"False," said an irritated Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser at a news conference Monday afternoon.
For one thing, it's the governor who calls in the guard.
For another, Kenosha has a history of comebacks. Kreuser cited rebounds from the end of auto assembly in 1988 and from the Great Recession in 2008.
"We were the hot spot of the Midwest and even in some parts of the nation and internationally up until the recent turns of events with Covid and this," Kresuer said. "We're going to rebound agains," he said.
"And for someone to say we wouldn't exist but for their action when I believe it to be false because I know things too... I just have to tell you what I believe the answer is and that's false."
Kreuser's remarks came during a question and answer session with reporters at what's become a nearly daily briefing for officials on the city's civil unrest.
Many of the questions dealt with President Trump's planned visit Tuesday, and his tweets about the city in the aftermath of the Jacob Blake police shooting.
Trump has said he called in the National Guard.
Not true, according to comments from the head of the Wisconsin National Guard, Adjutant Major General Paul Knapp.
According to Knapp, Gov. Evers verbally activated a Guard quick-deploying task force consisting of 125 soldiers early Monday morning, less than 10 hours after the shooting.
Guard members were joined in Kenosha by a State Patrol strike force and other outside law enforcement. The exact number of personnel on the scene wasn't immediately available.
Despite the manpower, a number of arson fires occurred, including those that burned two large buildings in the uptown area and several on 60th St.
Over the next several days, the guard presence gradually increased, according to Knapp, to where the number stands at 1,500.
In other news:
The curfew east of I-94 will be extended through the end of the week, according to Mayor Antaramian, although no formal announcement has yet been made. Beginning Wednesday, the deadline for getting off the streets is expected to be extended to 9 p.m. from 7 p.m.
No details of Trump's planned visit on Tuesday were presented.
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