Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of violating George Floyd’s civil rights.
Chauvin had previously pleaded not guilty to violating Floyd’s constitutional rights when he arrested Floyd and killed him after kneeling on his neck for nearly 10 minutes last spring in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd’s murder sparked international outrage and kicked off the largest nationwide protests for racial justice seen in decades.
We must hold white supremacy accountable and, in doing so, take a hard look in the mirror as white Americans.
Representative Maxine Waters‘s (D-Calif.) statements ahead of Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of George Floyd were not unlike the intimidation tactics employed by the Ku Klux Klan, says attorney and conservative firebrand Alan Dershowitz.
“Her message was clearly intended to get to the jury,” Dershowitz said
during an interview with Newsmax. “‘If you acquit or you find the charge anything less than murder, we will burn down your buildings, we will burn down your businesses, we will attack you.'”
The George Floyd murder brought forth a wave of activism across the country. Millions of Americans took to the streets to demand justice.
The murder also affected the world of sports. Players used their power to cancel games so the importance of the situation could be recognized. And many players of color spoke passionately about how they were affected by police brutality.
The players who held Conservative views mostly stayed silent. But today, Brett Favre gave his opinion on the Chauvin verdict. The Packers legend said that he didn’t think the police officer meant to kill George Floyd.
The Hall of Fame quarterback made the comments on his weekly podcast. He told listeners:
“I find it hard to believe – and I’m not defending Derek Chauvin in any way – I find it hard to believe, first of all, that he intentionally meant to kill George Floyd. That being said, his actions were uncalled for. I don’t care what color the person is on the street. You do not … I don’t know what led to that video that we saw where his knee is on his neck, but the man had thrown in the towel.”
https://twitter.com/TorreySmithWR/status/1384955277078892546
Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to announce that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will launch an investigation into the policing practices of law enforcement in Minneapolis.
“
The investigation will examine practices used by police, including the use of force, and whether the department engages in discriminatory practices, according to the person. It will also look into the department’s handling of misconduct allegations
Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) refused to back down amid criticism from her Republican colleagues after she addressed protesters following the police shooting of Daunte Wright in Minneapolis, Minnesota as the nation waits for the murder trial of Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd to conclude.
Waters had said
that if Chauvin is not found guilty, “we’ve got to stay on the street, and we’ve got to get more active. We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
Since the January 6th insurrection, Fox News has fallen deeper into the gutter. On any given day, viewers can hear from disgraced former Trump aide Stephen Miller or alt-right talking head Tomi Lahren.
Surprisingly, Geraldo Rivera has become somewhat of a voice of reason on the show. The former talk show host got into a wild debate this weekend with Dan Bongino where he called the pundit a “son of a b*tch” during a debate about police brutality.
Rivera was brought onto Martha MacCallum’s Monday show to again talk about police brutality. This time he was debating Lahren and took her down a peg after attempted to blame George Floyd for his own death.
Lahren remarked, “
Now the left wants to make everything with regards to officer involved shootings about race. It’s not about race, it’s about compliance.”
On Monday, the hosts of The View addressed both the Derek Chauvin trial and recent comments by Maxine Waters. The California congresswoman said that if the officer was acquitted, protesters need to, “make sure they know that we mean busines.”
Meghan McCain, the Conservative talking head on the show, took umbrage with the comments. Last summer, McCain was caught lying about violent protests outside of her New York City apartment.
That did not stop her, however, from claiming that last year’s demonstrations, “didn’t play well with Democrats among suburban women.” McCain continued, “[I believe in] peaceful protesting all day every day, it’s an integral part of an American pastime, I think the second it becomes violent, you lose a lot of people on the message that is really really important right now.”
Whoopi Golberg countered the comments, saying:
“Right, well 99 percent of the people who protest out there are not violent. We do find that there are people who are burning and looting stuff, people need to be very aware of who they are and where they are at any given time. I personally would prefer that we didn’t have oodles and oodles of videotape of officers getting ready to go out and fight the protestors, because I feel like people want it to happen. I don’t feel like people in power – if they really cared about all of this, they would have come to the aid of the protestors and said let’s work on this before it got as far as it did last summer.”
https://twitter.com/TheView/status/1384203017289752576
What we need to recognize is that when returned these verdicts will not just tell us about these individual cases; they will foretell whether we are moving toward a political culture of accountability to the nation’s stated ideals.
On May 25th of 2020, George Floyd died of injuries he suffered during an arrest. And the arrest was caught on video. Officer Derek Chauvin became infamous as America saw video of him casually kneeling on Floyd’s neck with his hand in his pocket.
The killing led to mass protests around the country. And Americans have waited to see Chauvin face trial. Monday saw the start of that trial and coverage of it has dominated cable news.
Fox News‘ coverage of the event has largely focused on defending the officers and slamming Floyd. Tucker Carlson took it to an entirely new level on Monday night.
Carlson claimed that
CNN
There was a reason why George Floyd’s death became a transformative moment in American history. The video of the killing left no ambiguity about how he died.
The trial of the police officers involved in the incident is looming. And now a light has again be shined on the incident. Not surprisingly, Fox News is attempting to smear Floyd and blame him for his death. Tucker Carlson took that tack on Wednesday night when he blamed the man for his own death.
The Fox host began, “According to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office, George Floyd wasn’t simply high, he had a lethal amount of fentanyl in his system. He also had methamphetamines.”
Carlson continued, “
Well, Mr. Floyd was having trouble breathing, of course, the most noted part of the tape. What explains that? Why was George Floyd telling officers, ‘I can’t breathe?'”
Amid the national debate about the militarization of law enforcement, House Democrats have introduced a bill to limit the transfer of military-grade gear to police officers.
The bill is sponsored by Representative Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and
“goes after the items that destroy trust and endanger communities while allowing support equipment transfers to continue,” according to a summary shared with The Hill.
Haaland and Buttigieg, as just two examples from Biden’s Cabinet choices, aren’t looking for apologies necessarily; when they speak, they are diagnosing what holds us all back so we can move beyond these past and persistent repressions to give full life, to create an optimal society and economy, for all Americans.
Candace Owens has had quite a meteoric rise in the last 5 years. She claims that before Donald Trump, she was a Democrat. But after the Gamergate controversy, Owens says that she became a conservative overnight.
And she’s become a big time favorite of Conservatives. Owens missives are frequently retweeted by the Trump family. She did not, however, receive an invitation to speak at the Republican National Convention.
The conservative activist is now working for the Daily Wire and recently appeared on The Alex Jones Show. Conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson was filling in for Jones.
When the topic of vaccines came up, Owens told Watson, “What does every society in the world that has had slaves had in common? And the answer is that there was always more slaves than there were masters.”
The Right Wing pundit continued, “There is always going to be more of us than them. You know, if we say no, it’s a no.”
While these comments are certainly controversial, they are mostly par for the course when it comes to Owens.
During the summer’s George Floyd protests, she said on her Facebook Live:
“We are being sold a lot of lies at the detriment to the black community, at the detriment to the white community and at the detriment to America as a whole. So, I want to come out and say that I do not support George Floyd and the media’s depiction of him as a martyr for black America.”
At one point, Megyn Kelly was Fox News shining star. She was paid well and had huge ratings. She decided to leave Fox, however, to host her own show on NBC News.
That decision turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Kelly failed to connect to viewers outside the Fox audience. And she was cancelled after making offensive comments about Halloween costumes that included blackface.
After the cancellation, she disappeared for a while. She has returned to Twitter, however, and her posts were frequently even farther to the right than usual.
The former Fox host has also started her own podcast. And in the most recent episode of her show, she claimed that she was leaving New York City over Liberals response to the George Floyd killing.
Kelly said she was most concerned about the effect on her children. She told listeners:
“After years of resisting it, we’re going to leave the city. The schools have always been far-left, which doesn’t align with my own ideology, but I didn’t really care, most of my friends are liberals, it’s fine. I come from a Democrat family, I’m not offended at all by the ideology, and I lean center-left on some things. But theyu’ve gone around the bend. I mean, they have gone off the deep end.”
The former Fox host was most offended by a letter that asked parents of white students to allies to the black community.
Um. A source close to Megyn Kelly told The Daily Beast that she has “received multiple 7-figure offers to return to TV” and has “turned them all down” because, in the end, she wishes not to answer to bosses. https://t.co/mvNudxO2la
On May 25th of this year, George Floyd was killed by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since that moment, protests calling for racial justice have been taking place all over the countries.
Those protests grew again this week after the Sunday shooting of Kenosha, Wisconsin man Jacob Blake. According to Donald Trump, however, the protests have nothing to do with George Floyd and everything to do with violent anarchy.
The President made the comments during a Friday night event in Manchester, New Hampshire. Trump told his supporters, “They’re not protesters, those aren’t protestors.”
Trump continued:
“They’re anarchists, they’re agitators, they’re rioters. They’re looters. You know you say that. Some of the people, not all of them. The people back there, ‘you know, how dare you, these are friendly protesters. They’re just looking for trouble. It has nothing to do with George Floyd. It has nothing to with anything.”
The President closed his comments, “They don’t even know who George Floyd is. They don’t know who George Floyd is. They have no idea. If you ask them, who’s George Floyd, they couldn’t even tell you. This is just bad people, troublemakers. And they shouldn’t be representing our country at important events. And we’ve got to stop it.”
Watch a clip of Trump’s comments below:
Trump: They’re not protesters… Has nothing to with George Floyd. Has nothing to do with anything. They don’t even know who George Floyd is. pic.twitter.com/fLUuxQq0qP
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) August 28, 2020
The Black Lives Matter movement, in demanding that we reconsider how Black lives have been valued, or rather de-valued, in U.S. culture, society, and political economy, essentially asks us as well to interrogate our entire system of economic and cultural values.
On what basis do we in our socio-economic system and culture assign different values to people’s lives?
Such a question really brings us to the heart of our class society that we really tend not just to take for granted but to see as absolutely justified. Of course the CEO, the doctor, the manager, or the lawyer make more than the agricultural worker in the field, the grocery store clerk, the bus driver, or the mail carrier.
The U.S. dominant culture doesn’t ask us to question this state of affairs, and so most people don’t. Even if we argue over the degree of income inequality, few argue for full and outright economic equality and for an end to this differential valuation. Our cultural value system tends to justify this differential valuation of work and thus by extension the differential valuation of the lives of the workers. And we know, of course, that often the work of devalued because of who is doing it. Women and people of color have historically received less pay for the same work white men are doing.
Based on their wages, people have different access to healthcare, to education, to housing—to basic means of survival. They may have no access at all. The story we are told is that this arrangement is a meritocracy, so people get what they deserve. In other words, some lives deserve less—and thus they matter less.
We also like to say in our culture that “we,” or “people,” aren’t making these decisions, but rather an indifferent market is determining the economic value of work—and hence the human value of workers’ lives.
But it really isn’t the market. Gains in benefits and pay and improvements in working conditions have historically been the result of the collective organizing and protest of workers, often far more violent and deadly for workers than the protests we are witnessing today. Maybe you’ve seen the bumper sticker: “The Weekend: Brought to You by the Labor Movement.” This is why we see wages and benefits are invariably lower for non-unionized workers and why the right wing continues to undermine the power of labor unions.
The market isn’t determining the value of people’s lives; people through brute political will and force are.
We see “essential workers” these days–upon whom, it should now be crystal clear, we all vitally depend for our food and survival—being effectively forced to work, and this recognition in our culture of their “essential value” has not translated into an elevation in their economic value, in the mattering of their lives as registered in the resources, the money, they have to take care of their lives.
The police murder of George Floyd, just one in a long string of murders of African Americans at the hands of police for which there had been little to no accountability, constituted a tipping point, triggering widespread protests by American finally declaring, “Enough.” What America on the whole had willfully denied—the reality of racism—it has seemed to admit, on the whole.
What will it take to reach this tipping point on the injustice of class inequality?
Millions of Americans are suffering.
Recent statistics show 26 million Americans cannot afford to pay for adequate food for their families and are going hungry.
Keep in mind that millions of Americans lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs. This July 32% of U.S. households could not make their full housing payment, making the fourth month in a row of “historically high” numbers of Americans unable to meet these payments.
This past week another 1.4 million Americans filed for unemployment.
And yet the Republican Senate is loath to extend enhanced unemployment benefits or approve another relief package for the average American wanting work.
Meanwhile, millions, nay billions, of dollars are being distributed to the wealthiest among us who are doing just fine. Nicholas Kristoff reported in The New York Times that last relief package provided $135 billion dollars in “relief” for real estate developers, offering retroactive tax breaks for periods that preceded the coronavirus outbreak. As Jason Easley has reported for PoliticusUsa.com, businesses connected to the families of Donald Trump and Jared Kushner have also received millions, as have businesses of families connected to Mitch McConnell.
But it’s not about these individuals. It’s about the wealthiest class in America using its power to raid the nation’s coffers we taxpayers fill, supposedly to serve us all in democratic fashion.
We see class inequality isn’t just about income inequality. It’s about the unequal power in the key political processes of decision-making.
How much is enough?
Remember Trump’s tax cuts?
These tax cuts benefited the wealthy and did not trickle down, despite Trump’s promises that companies would invest in workers and not cut jobs. Companies like AT&T, Wells Fargo, and General Motors lobbied for them, promising to re-invest their tax savings in their workers and companies to the benefit off the nation as a whole. And yet all of these companies have engaged in massive layoffs or plant closings. AT&T has eliminated over 23,000 jobs since the tax cuts went into effect, despite receiving a $21 billion windfall from the tax cuts with the prospect of cashing in an additional $3 billion annually in tax savings. In November 2018, GM announced it would be closing five plants, eliminating 14,000 jobs in communities across Ohio, Maryland, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada, while buying back $10 billion in stock and earning a net profit of $8 billion on which the company paid no federal tax. Wells Fargo did raise the minimum wage of its employees, though the tax savings for the company were 47 times larger than the cost of that pay raise to the company; and the company announced its plans in September 2018 to eliminate 26,000 jobs, at the same time that it has raised health insurance costs for its employees.
There may be no one George Floyd to push us over the edge, to bring us to the tipping point.
But there are whole classes of people suffering en masse.
When will we tip?
Philadelphia’s District Attorney has warned that he’ll charge any federal officer sent into the city by the Trump administration if they commit a crime such as kidnapping.
Larry Krasner issued the stark warning as President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy federal law enforcement to various Democratically-controlled cities.
“My dad volunteered and served in World War II to fight fascism, like most of my uncles,” Krasner said in a statement.
“So we would not have an American president brutalizing and kidnapping Americans for exercising their constitutional rights and trying to make America a better place, which is what patriots do.”
“Anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people will face criminal charges from my office.”
Krasner’s comments raise the possibility of a clash between federal and local law enforcement officers. This kid of conflict hasn’t been directly addressed either by the Trump administration or local leaders opposed to federal forces.
However, recent events in Portland, Oregon have heightened tensions as federal agents without proper identification carried out arrests and others engaged in what’s been called “occupation”.
“This is flat-out urban warfare. And it’s being wrought on the people of this country by the president of the United States and it’s got to stop,” said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler.
The issue is likely to escalate as President Donald Trump pursues a “law and order” reelection agenda and protests continue following the death of George Floyd.
William Barr has branded protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death “extreme” as protests continue throughout the country and federal agents teargas civilians.
The Attorney General won almost instant scorn for his remarks on Thursday, including from one conservative critic opposed to President Donald Trump. He did acknowledge the tragedy of Floyd’s death, however.
“We had that terrible death in Minneapolis,” Barr said
“But then we had this extreme reaction that has demonized police and called for the defunding of police departments.”
You know what’s “extreme”? Begging for your life while a cop murders you by kneeling on your fucking throat for eight minutes.
I’ve got my “Fuck That Guy” for tomorrow’s podcast. https://t.co/ypCFeGI7hc
Tom Cotton compared protesters to the traitors who rebelled against the United States and formed the Confederacy on Tuesday. The comments come as the President threatens to deploy federal officers to cities.
The Republican spoke to Fox News about ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd. The Arkansas senator compared recent events to the notorious event that sparked the Civil War.
“These insurrectionists in the streets of Portland are little different from the insurrectionists who seceded from the union in 1861 in South Carolina, and tried to take over Fort Sumter,” Cotton said.
Watch the video:
On Fox & Friends, Sen. Tom Cotton compares protesters to the Confederacy: "These insurrectionists in the streets of Portland are little different from the insurrectionists who seceded from the union in 1861 in South Carolina, and tried to take over Fort Sumter." pic.twitter.com/7ylYh3N1dB
A clear majority of American voters now believe U.S. society is racist. This represents a significant trend as protests against the treatment of African Americans continue.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that 56% of Americans think the country is racist, while a staggering 71% believe race relations are bad at the moment.
Brenda Lee is a pollster who worked on the poll. She thinks George Floyd’s death has affected public attitudes.
“Americans are concerned about issues of inequality, and George Floyd’s death helped contribute to that,” Lee said.
“We’ve moved the needle a great deal in terms of just clearly identifying that we, as Americans, have an issue with racism in this society.”
However, there are major partisan differences on the issue of race – a fact that’s been evident in many similar polls.
While 90% of Democrats believe African Americans are discriminated against, just 26% of Republicans agree.
Republicans are also far less likely to think the country is racist. Just 30% believe that it is, compared to 82% of Democratic respondents.
The survey also showed that a majority of voters – 57% – support the protests sparked by Floyd’s death. These numbers will not be welcome news to President Donald Trump’s campaign.
White House advisers are sick of the President’s self-pitying attitude, according to a new report from The Washington Post. Donald Trump’s son-in-law has urged him to cheer up.
The Post claims that those close to President Trump are tired of his “woe is me” attitude. He’s reportedly unhappy with recent events and bad polling, and it shows.
Jared Kushner has tried to encourage Trump to be “sunnier” in his outlook, while Hope Hicks – always a favorite of the President’s – has put events in his diary that he might think are fun.
However, Trump has adopted a negative attitude whenever he speaks to advisers, no doubt prompted by recent events and bad polling. Kushner believes this could damage him with his supporters.
One unnamed adviser told the Post that Trump is ““inconsolable.”
The President reportedly complained that “some stupid cop in Minneapolis kneels on someone’s neck and now everyone is protesting.”
Trump’s handling of race relations is receiving terrible reviews from the public in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. An ABC News/Ipsos poll found that a large majority of Americans disapprove of how he’s handling it.
Aides are urging him to “snap out of it” but Trump is reportedly “fixated” on his own problems.
President Donald Trump said he would use “serious force” against protesters if they set up an autonomous zone in Washington, D..C.
“There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!” he wrote.
There will never be an “Autonomous Zone” in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020
The president’s comment is a reference to Seattle’s self-declared Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone that was set up after authorities abandoned the city’s East Precinct. Millions have rallied against racial injustice and police brutality around the nation since the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
“Since then, hundreds of people have been gathering in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, where the atmosphere has been part peaceful protest, part commune, with speeches, distribution of free food, live music, a community garden and late-night movie screening,” NBC News reported last month.
Many soon criticized the president, who has threatened to use force against protesters before.
So, are you confirming that if peaceful protesters claim to have an "autonomous zone" you will use violence to stop them? Just confirming for someone I know, named the Constitution.
Vice President Mike Pence was repeatedly asked to say the words “Black lives matter” during an interview with 6ABC Action News in Philadelphia.
The vice president declined.
“Let me just say that what happened to George Floyd was a tragedy,” he said, referring to the unarmed black man whose death in police custody last month sparked a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality nationwide.
“And in this nation, especially on Juneteenth, we celebrate the fact that from the founding of this nation we’ve cherished the ideal that all, all of us are created equal, and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. And so all lives matter in a very real sense.”
Pence’s remarks, coming on Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the official end of slavery in the United States, received immediate criticism.
I used to do what Pence does here. Respond with “All lives matter.” But I was wrong then, and Pence is wrong now. Saying “Black Lives Matter” is acknowledging that if George Floyd were white, he’d still be alive. Black lives simply want to be on equal footing. Shame on Pence. https://t.co/EI2YiRGOCJ
According to a new poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 63 percent of Republican voters expressed a belief that the country is heading in the wrong direction.
Most Americans––74 percent––said they believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. 37 percent of Republicans said they believe President Donald Trump is dividing the country.
“Instead of bringing us all together, he’s pulling us all apart,” said Donna Oates, a 63-year-old retiree from Chino, California who said she changed her voter registration to Democrat after feeling frustrated with the president.
“Presidents seeking four more years in office typically rely on voters being optimistic about the direction the country is headed and eager to stay the course — a view most Americans don’t currently hold,” Julie Pace and Emily Swanson report for The Associated Press. “Just 24% say the country is headed in the right direction, down from 33% a month ago and 42% in March. That’s when the COVID-19 pandemic began taking hold in the U.S., killing nearly 120,000 Americans to date and upending most aspects of daily life.”
The report goes on to note that the president’s approval rating “during this moment of tremendous upheaval sits at 39%.”
Although many Americans have approved of the president’s approach to the economy, 54 percent said they believe he’s worsened the political climate since the killing of George Floyd sparked protests around the country. 37 percent––that’s seven points lower than March polling results––say they approve of his approach to the coronavirus pandemic, which to date has killed more than 120,000 Americans nationwide.
The United Nations’ Human Rights Council will debate systemic racism and police brutality in the United States following a call from all 54 African nations.
“Structural racism and police violence are issues, which are commonly raised by states and civil society at meetings of the council, as are unlawful killings by police and racial bias in policing,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rolando Gomez told Voice of America. “And, the aim, of course, is to prevent such abhorrent acts.”
The announcement comes as protests continue to galvanize millions across the nation to speak out against racial injustice and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis City Council caved to public pressure last week, unanimously passing a resolution to disband the police force with a community-led model.
“The tragic events of 25 May in Minneapolis that led to the death of George Floyd led to protests around the world in protest of injustice and police brutality that persons of African descent face on a daily basis in many regions of the world,” Burkina Faso’s ambassador to the U.N., Dieudonné W. Désiré Sougouri, said in the formal urgent debate request. “The death of George Floyd is unfortunately not an isolated incident. Many other cases of persons of African descent having faced the same fate because of the origin and police violence exist.”
The United States is not a member of the 47-member state forum in Geneva. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley withdrew the U.S. two years ago after alleging bias against Israel.
President Donald Trump stoked racial tensions in an interview with Fox News today, saying he believes that chokeholds sound “so innocent and so perfect” in remarks defending his “law and order” approach to the protests that have erupted nationwide since George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis, inflaming an already fraught national dialogue on police use of force.
“I think the concept of chokeholds sounds so innocent and so perfect,” he said, “and then you realize that if it’s one-on-one, now if it’s two-on-one it’s a little bit of a different story depending, depending on the toughness and strength, you know, we’re talking about toughness and strength, we’re talking there’s a physical thing here also.”
Trump on police chokeholds: "I think the concept of chokeholds sounds so innocent and so perfect." pic.twitter.com/3NbyFwX26R
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 12, 2020
Remarking on the protests, he defended the use of chokeholds, saying, “You saw some very good people protesting, but you saw some bad people also. “And you get somebody in a chokehold. What are you going to do now? Let go and say, ‘Oh, let’s start all over again’?”
"Sometimes if you're alone and you're fighting somebody, it's tough … we have some real bad people" — Trump defends police chokeholds pic.twitter.com/DZfjT5isFU
President Donald Trump, who has weathered criticism for deciding to use tear gas to clear peaceful protesters for a photo-op in front of St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., doubled down on the decision, writing on Twitter that the National Guard “could hardly believe how easy it was” to follow his order.
Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was,” Trump wrote, while purporting to quote one member who allegedly called the action “a walk in the park.”
“The protesters, agitators, anarchists (ANTIFA), and others, were handled VERY easily by the Guard, D.C. Police, & S.S. GREAT JOB!” he continued.
Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was. “A walk in the park”, one said. The protesters, agitators, anarchists (ANTIFA), and others, were handled VERY easily by the Guard, D.C. Police, & S.S. GREAT JOB!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has called for the removal of Confederate monuments from the National Statuary Hall collection at the U.S. Capitol.
“The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, who chairs the Joint Committee on the Library, and vice-chairperson of the committee California Representative Zoe Lofgren. “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to those ideals.”
She added: “Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed.”
There are 11 Confederate monuments on display in the Capitol. Among the statues are representations of Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis and his Vice President, Alexander Stephens. Both men were accused of treason after the end of the Civil War.
Criticism against Confederate monuments has intensified in the wake of the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody. For many, the statues represent an all-too long era of racial injustice furthered by the police brutality that has claimed the lives of Floyd and multiple black people over many decades.
Kayleigh McEnany has defended the President’s unfounded conspiracy about an elderly peace activist by pointing to his tweets. Donald Trump has claimed the man is an “Antifa provocateur.”
Martin Gugino is a 75-year-old man who remains in hospital because police in Buffalo shoved him to the ground. The White House Press Secretary told Fox News on Wednesday that Gugino had questionable tweets.
“Does the president think that this guy is part of Antifa?” Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade asked McEnany.
“The President was raising questions based on a report that he saw, questions that need to be asked and every case we can’t jump on one side without looking at all of the facts at play,” McEnany said.
“This individual has some very questionable tweets, some profanity-laden tweets about police officers,” she said.
“Of course no on condones any sort of violence. We need the appropriate amount of force used in any interaction, but there are a lot of questions in that case.”
McEnany went on to defend the timing of Trump’s attack on Gugino. Protests are continuing over the death of George Floyd and the Coronavirus pandemic is not over.
“The President has acknowledged so many times and rightfully so the injustice with George Floyd,” McEnany said.
“He was upset when he saw that video as I noted he gave an entire speech about Mr. Floyd and the grave injustice there, but the President was raising some questions, some legitimate ones about that particular interaction and it’s his prerogative to do so.”
The Justice Department has issued a report showing no link to Antifa, an organization that doesn’t exist, at protests following the killing of George Floyd.
After NPR reviewed court documents for 51 individuals who are facing federal charges related to the demonstrations, they found none with any connections to the Antifa––or antifascist––movement. Of those 51 cases, 20 involve allegations relating to arson, 16 involve allegations relating to illegal possession of a firearm, and eight involve inciting a riot.
“The single instance in which an extremist group is mentioned in court documents is a case against three Nevada men,” NPR noted. “Federal prosecutors allege the trio belong to the right-wing Boogaloo movement that wants to bring about a civil war. The men have been charged with plotting violence during Las Vegas protests.”
Speaking to Fox News’s Bret Baier earlier this week, Attorney General William Barr said that the lack of cases against Antifa does not mean its members were not participating in the protests that continue across the nation.
“We have some investigations underway, very focused investigations on certain individuals that relate to antifa,” Barr said. “But in the initial phase of identifying people and arresting them, they were arrested for crimes that don’t require us to identify a particular group or don’t necessitate that.”
President Donald Trump announced on May 31 that he would seek to designate Antifa a terrorist organization. The announcement earned jeers amid criticism about how to make the designation for an organization that doesn’t actually exist and whether the president even had the legal authority to make that call.
The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
Fox News personality Tucker Carlson is facing a wave of criticism after using the classic PBS show Sesame Street as an example of “decades of relentless propaganda.”
“All of it designed to make us feel that we have no right to stand up for ourselves, to stand up for our country,” he said. “We are too sinful to resist, we deserve whatever we get. Shut up and take it, America.”
Carlson said Sesame Street, which was featured during a CNN town hall about the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests against racial injustice and police brutality that his death sparked, was teaching children that “America is a very bad place, and it’s all your fault.”
A clip from the event shows Elmo’s dad Louie explaining racism in a way children can understand.
“They are sad and upset, and they have every right to be Elmo. People are upset because racism is a huge problem in our country,” Louie says. “Racism is when people treat other people unfairly because of the way they look or the color of their skin. Not all streets are like Sesame Street. On Sesame Street, we all love and respect one another. Across the country, people of color, especially in the black community, are being treated unfairly because of how they look, their culture, race and who they are. What we are seeing is people saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ They want to end racism.”
“Not all streets are like Sesame Street. … What we are seeing is people saying 'enough is enough.' They want to end racism.”@Elmo’s dad Louie explains why people are protesting across the US. https://t.co/icV04F4FNW #CNNSesameStreet pic.twitter.com/1efrMAzZ8V
Michelle Obama has called on those protesting about the death of George Floyd to channel their anger in a way that will bring real change. The former First Lady made an address to 2020 graduates on Sunday.
“This is an important time of transition. In light of the current state of our country, I struggle to find the right words of wisdom for you today,” Obama said on YouTube.
She said the country’s “foundation has been shaken.”
“Not just by a pandemic that stole too many of our loved ones, upended our daily lives and sent tens of millions into unemployment but also by the rumbling of the age-old fault lines that our country was built on, the lines of race and power that are now once again so nakedly exposed for all of us to grapple with,” she said.
“It’s up to you to march hand in hand with your allies, to stand peacefully with dignity and purpose on the front lines in the fight for justice.”
Obama urged the graduates to “couple every protest with plans and policies, with organizing and mobilizing and voting.”
“Graduates, anger is a powerful force. It can be a useful force, but left on its own, it will only corrode and destroy and sow chaos on the inside and out. But when anger is focused, when it’s channeled into something more, oh, that is the stuff that changes history.”
“Dr. King was angry. Sojourner Truth was angry. Lucretia Mott, Cesar Chavez, the folks at Stonewall, they were all angry,” Obama said.
“But those folks were also driven by compassion, by principle, by hope. And so they took advantage of whatever resources they had in their own time.”
Obama urged graduates to register to vote as well as protest against injustices.
“Graduates, this is how you can finish the work that the generations before you have started, by staying open and hopeful even in the tough times, by channeling that discomfort you feel into activism and a democracy that was designed to respond to those who vote.”
When a reporter asked Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a news conference last Tuesday what he thought about Donald Trump’s threat to use armed forces to suppress the mass protests occurring in the wake of the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and in response to unceasing state violence against African Americans, Trudeau’s answer spoke volumes about the global standing of the United States.
Last May, the conservative group Michigan United for Liberty organized protests in the state capitol against Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders. While the group, composed of roughly 8,000 members, had already formalized its complaint against the orders in a law suit, the protest provided a forum for a defiant public expression against what the group sees as a gross violation of people’s constitutional freedoms.
Former Vice President Joe Biden called Trump despicable for putting any other words into George Floyd's mouth besides I can't breathe.
The highest ranking African American in Congress has branded the President a racist. Jim Clyburn accused Donald Trump of wanting to start a race war with his response to recent protests.
Clyburn is the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. On Wednesday, he offered fierce condemnation of the President.
“In all my public life, I have never put the racist label on anybody until now,” the House Majority Whip said in an interview with The Post and Courier.
“He is an unadulterated racist,” Clyburn said.
He explained that he first started to think of Trump as a racist when the President referred to Omarosa Manigault-Newman as a “dog”.
Clyburn also criticized Trump’s reaction to the George Floyd protests. He added his voice to those who’ve slammed the President for his desire to use military force.
“What I’ve seen him do in the last several days, this man is trying to ignite a race war in this country,” Clyburn said.
The South Carolina Democrat also criticized Trump in an interview on CBS.
“It seems as if the president considers the exercise of one’s First Amendment rights to be carnage,” he said.
“How we define it, generally, he has contributed to it more than any president in my lifetime. I don’t think any president since maybe Woodrow Wilson.”
President Wilson, a Democrat, was a notorious racist.
A retired Marine general has warned that Donald Trump’s recent actions could endanger the future of American democracy. Four-star General John Allen voiced his concerns on Thursday.
Allen criticized the President’s controversial visit to St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C. on Monday.
“To even the casual observer, Monday was awful for the United States and its democracy,” Allen wrote in Foreign Policy.
“Donald Trump isn’t religious, has no need of religion, and doesn’t care about the devout, except insofar as they serve his political needs,” the general said.
“The President failed to project any of the higher emotions or leadership desperately needed in every quarter of this nation during this dire moment.”
“We know why he did all this on Monday,” Allen wrote.
“He even said so while holding the Bible and standing in front of the church. It was about MAGA—’making America great again’.”
Allen echoed the words of George Floyd‘s brother, Terence, who called for peaceful protests and voting.
“So, while June 1 could easily be confused with a day of shame and peril if we listen to Donald Trump, if instead we listen to Terrence Floyd, it is a day of hope,” Allen said.
“So mark your calendars—this could be the beginning of the change of American democracy not to illiberalism, but to enlightenment.”
“But it will have to come from the bottom up. For at the White House, there is no one home.”
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has delayed anti-lynching legislation, saying “there has to be some give and take” on the measure’s language.
“We want the bill to be stronger. We think that lynching is an awful thing that should be roundly condemned and should be universally condemned. I don’t think it’s a good idea to conflate someone who has an altercation where they had minor bruises, with lynching,” Paul said.
“If you’re gonna call something an anti-lynching bill, but you’re gonna have a new conspiracy charge for someone who has minor bruising, we don’t think that’s appropriate. And someone has to read these bills and make sure they do what they say they’re going to do rather than it be just a big PR effort,” Paul added.
When members of the press asked for clarification on what Paul meant by “minor bruises” and requested he spotlight specific language he wishes to see removed, Paul’s office referred to one of his statements.
Paul’s statement reads: “The bill as written would allow altercations resulting in a cut, abrasion, bruise, or any other injury no matter how temporary to be subject to a 10-year penalty. My amendment would simply apply a serious bodily injury standard, which would ensure crimes resulting in substantial risk of death and extreme physical pain be prosecuted as a lynching.”
Paul’s aides said he’d objected to the measure’s language in recent weeks but that his concerns were sidelined because of the coronavirus pandemic. The current delay comes during an especially tense moment as protests rage across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis and whose killing sent shockwaves around the world.
The Secretary of Defense has publicly disagreed with the President about deploying troops to quell nationwide protests. Mark Esper said on Wednesday he doesn’t want to see the Insurrection Act invoked.
Esper addressed the issue during a briefing at the Pentagon.
“The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations,” he said.
“The National Guard is best suited to lend support to…local law enforcement. The option to use active duty military should only be as a last resort. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act” – Def. Sec Esper.
Eric Swalwell has suggested Donald Trump has no intention of leaving office is he loses in November. The California congressman warned that Americans needed to vote in huge numbers.
“He’s not leaving office,” Swalwell tweeted on Tuesday in a clear reference to the President.
“And he thinks the same people who protected him as he gassed protesters to take a photo-op walk will let him stay,” the Democrat said.
He’s not leaving office. And he thinks the same people who protected him as he gassed protesters to take a photo-op walk will let him stay. So what do we do? Show up in a way that the outcome cannot be denied. #VoteForYourLife
Pope Francis commented on the protests that have erupted since George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis, saying that Catholics cannot tolerate racism and also “claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.”
“My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life,” the pope said. “At the same time, we have to recognize that ‘the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost.'”
Pope Francis says he is joining the Church in Minneapolis, and across the U.S., “in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism.”
His full remarks are below:
“I greet the English-speaking faithful joining us through the media.
“Dear brothers and sisters in the United States, I have witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of Mr. George Floyd.
“My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life. At the same time, we have to recognize that “the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost”.
“Today I join the Church in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and in the entire United States, in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism. Let us pray for the consolation of their grieving families and friends and let us implore the national reconciliation and peace for which we yearn. May Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, intercede for all those who work for peace and justice in your land and throughout the world.
“May God bless all of you and your families. “
A clear majority of Americans think the police treat black people worse than white people. A new CBS Poll also shows a stark divide between Democrats and Republicans on the issue.
The poll was released on Tuesday morning as protests are expected to continue following the death of George Floyd.
The survey found that 57% of people believe police treat white people better than African Americans. Just 39% think police treat white and black people equally.
African Americans are far more likely to think police treat their community worse. A staggering 78% of black respondents said law enforcement treats white people better.
Among white people, just 52% agreed that police treat white people better than African Americans, but overall, Americans see a clear disparity in treatment based on race.
The poll also showed a stark partisan divide on the issue. While 80% of Democrats think African Americans receive worse treatment, just 29% of Republicans see the same problem.
A clear majority of Republicans – 61% – think police treat black and white people equally. This is despite the numerous deaths of unarmed African Americans involving police.
Interestingly, 29% of GOP voters think police treat whites better. This shows almost a third of self-identified Republicans recognize there is a problem.
Republicans were outliers in the poll as 59% of independents said they thought police treat African Americans worse than white people. A further 38% said they are treated equally.
Democrats have harshly criticized Donald Trump for threatening to use the U.S. military against protesters. Several high profile lawmakers also expressed anger at events in Washington, D.C.
“Turning the army on protestors is what dictatorships do,” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said.
Turning the army on protestors is what dictatorships do.
It’s literally the antithesis of America.
Republicans of good faith and decency need cannot let their party’s position become pushing for an American Tiananmen Square.
Two bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States have publicly criticized Donald Trump for using a historic Washington, D.C. church for a photo op.
Reverend Mariann Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington slammed the President for using St. John’s Church, which is in her jurisdiction, without informing them in advance. She tweeted her disapproval.
“We are followers of Jesus. In no way do we support the President’s incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation. We stand with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd through the sacred act of peaceful protest.”
We are followers of Jesus. In no way do we support the President’s incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation. We stand with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd through the sacred act of peaceful protest.
Michigan Representative Justin Amash (R) is preparing legislation that would the prohibition against suing police officers.
“This week, I am introducing the Ending Qualified Immunity Act to eliminate qualified immunity and restore Americans’ ability to obtain relief when police officers violate their constitutionally secured rights,” Amash wrote on Twitter.
This week, I am introducing the Ending Qualified Immunity Act to eliminate qualified immunity and restore Americans’ ability to obtain relief when police officers violate their constitutionally secured rights. pic.twitter.com/PiNYP8cX8i
Barack Obama has called on protesters not to participate in violence as they campaign for justice for George Floyd. The former president offered advice on fighting racial injustice.
Obama published an article on Medium on Monday entitled “How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change.”
“As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change,” Obama wrote.
I wrote out some thoughts on how to make this moment a real turning point to bring about real change––and pulled together some resources to help young activists sustain the momentum by channeling their energy into concrete action. https://t.co/jEczrOeFdv
Anthony Scaramucci has accused Donald Trump of stoking the fires of a race war. The former White House Communications Director offered searing criticism over the weekend.
Scaramucci worked for the Trump administration for 10 days in 2017 before resigning over an indiscreet interview. Though he became a pro-Trump commentator for a period, he later turned on his former boss.
“The Racist in Chief is inciting a race war while the Republicans remain silent,” Scaramucci tweeted on Sunday as protests over the death of George Floyd continued.
The Racist in Chief is inciting a race war while the Republicans remain silent.
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) May 31, 2020
“Racism in America didn’t end in 1862, 1964 or 2008. It’s a travesty that minorities in this country still have to live every day under a cloud of fear,” he said.
“We need real leadership to fix this. Unfortunately right now we have none. ”
“Donald Trump show some empathy for once.”
Scaramucci doubled down on Monday morning and called for Trump to be defeated at the ballot box.
“Let’s vote him out with a ferocity that will reverberate through American history,” he tweeted.
Scaramucci isn’t the only conservative to lash out at Trump as protests escalated. Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Republican Senator John McCain, said the country was “leaderless.”
“COWARDS! All of you!!! But most especially the President and every member of his team who continues to condone his utter COWARDICE!!”
she said
Martin Luther King III has called the police officers responsible for George Floyd’s death his “judge, jury and executioner.” He also called for an end to the violence.
King is the son of Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. He told the UK’s BBC that he understood why people were reacting to Floyd’s death they way they had.
“We’ve seen these kind of incidents happen in the African-American community,” King said. “And by the hands of policemen, over and over and over again.”
“When is enough going to be enough? When are law enforcement people going to treat African-Americans in the same way that everyone else is treated?”
King said the violence and looting should stop, but he acknowledged that these actions were caused by anger.
“I can never condone violence” he said. “I have to always believe there are other ways to resolve conflict.”
“My father and his team always advocated for non-violence, although they understood why people resort to violence.”
“Well, my father used to say violence is the language of the unheard. And so people’s voices have not been heard, obviously, because these kind of things keep happening and keep happening.”
“When my father was killed, the nation erupted into this kind of violence, over a hundred cities went up in flames.”
“That’s not what Martin Luther King Jr. would have wanted to have happened,” he said.
“But he also would have said, ‘Based on the circumstances, I certainly understand what people feel they’re going through.’ When you push someone up into a corner, at some point people will come out and react in ways that some would say are not responsible.”
President Donald Trump railed against his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, on Twitter this morning, falsely accusing him of using his influence to bail “Anarchists”––his word for protesters with the Black Lives Matter movement––out of jail.
“Sleepy Joe Biden’s people are so Radical Left that they are working to get the Anarchists out of jail, and probably more,” the president wrote. “Joe doesn’t know anything about it, he is clueless, but they will be the real power, not Joe. They will be calling the shots! Big tax increases for all, Plus!”
Sleepy Joe Biden’s people are so Radical Left that they are working to get the Anarchists out of jail, and probably more. Joe doesn’t know anything about it, he is clueless, but they will be the real power, not Joe. They will be calling the shots! Big tax increases for all, Plus!
There was a thug in the George Floyd case. He was sitting in the White House tweeting toxins as usual. They were so poisonous that, for the first time in Twitter history, Donald Trump was docked for violating Twitter’s Terms of Service.
CNN political commentator Van Jones recently issued a stark challenge to, and indeed indictment of, supposedly well-meaning White America, speaking in the wake of the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and in the midst of mass uprisings and protests responding to the never-ending violence against African Americans.
While Donald Trump has been involved in a dispute with Twitter, speciously and ignorantly crying that the social media company violated his First Amendment rights, uprisings and mass actions protesting the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor—and the pervasive devaluing of Black lives generally–have mounted.
Minnesota officials said in a Saturday news conference that white nationalists and people from outside the state are fueling the violence in Minneapolis.
Trump threatened protesters at the White House with violence for using their First Amendment free speech right to protest against the government.
During an appearance on Fox News’s The Five, Geraldo Rivera condemned President Donald Trump after Twitter flagged the president for “glorifying violence” after he referred to those who’ve protested in Minneapolis following George Floyd’s death as “THUGS” and said that “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Rivera said Democrats are “studiously avoiding” incidences of looting in Minneapolis, but added, “But the other thing is, the president, in these tweets, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts,’ c’mon!”
“What is this, 6th grade?” he continued. “You don’t put gasoline on the fire. That’s not calming anybody. Who are you daring?” Rivera mocked the idea that any demonstrators would stop what they’re doing because Donald Trump tweeted that they might get shot. “That’s not going to happen!” he exclaimed. “All he does is diminish himself.”
Rivera concluded that he “laments” the “recklessness” of Trump’s “tempestuous nature when it comes to Twitter.”
The president later insisted that his remark about looting “was spoken as a fact, not as a statement.”
“It’s very simple,” he said, “nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media.”
….It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It’s very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. Honor the memory of George Floyd!
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced the committee will hold a hearing on police use of force after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis while in police custody.
Graham said he’d spoken with Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s ranking member, about the killing, which has resulted in several days of protests.
“Both of us are appalled at what we saw and believe it is important to have a hearing as soon as possible as to how to combat this outrage,” Graham said. “The Committee intends to call a wide variety of witnesses on the topics of better policing, addressing racial discrimination regarding the use of force, as well as building stronger bonds between communities and police.”
Graham added that the committee aims “to shine a bright light on the problems associated with Mr. Floyd’s death, with the goal of finding a better way forward for our nation.”
The announcement comes as President Donald Trump faces heavy criticism for his response to the killing. Earlier today, Twitter flagged the president for “glorifying violence” after he referred to those who’ve protested in Minneapolis following Floyd’s death as “THUGS” and said that “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot denounced President Donald Trump, saying he was “encouraging people to be shot in the street” after referring to those who’ve protested in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd as “THUGS” and saying that “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
“I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump,” Lightfoot said. “It’s two words. It begins with F and ends with you.”
She added that the president aims to “polarize, to destabilize local government and inflame racist urges. And we absolutely cannot let him prevail.”
Derek Chauvin, the police officer seen on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck while he cried out “I can’t breathe,” was arrested and charged with third-degree murder after three days of violent protests in Minneapolis. Chauvin faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
“Its been a painful reminder that while we have been focused on fighting this violence, we know our work and facing hard truths about Mr. Floyd, and I think about my brothers and men in my family,” Lightfoot said, recalling the death of Laquan McDonald, a Chicago teen who was shot 16 times by police officers in 2014.
Twitter flagged President Trump for “glorifying violence” in his tweets about the George Floyd protests.
Former President Barack Obama issued a statement about the death of George Floyd that highlighted the disgraceful behavior of Trump.
Former President Barack Obama issued a statement about the death of George Floyd that highlighted the disgraceful behavior of Trump.
Democrats have shown a united front in their response to Donald Trump’s tweet about shooting protesters in Minneapolis. The President appeared to double down on Friday morning.
“The National Guard has arrived on the scene,” Trump tweeted.
“They are in Minneapolis and fully prepared. George Floyd will not have died in vain. Respect his memory!!!”
The National Guard has arrived on the scene. They are in Minneapolis and fully prepared. George Floyd will not have died in vain. Respect his memory!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
Several prominent Democrats had already condemned the President’s earlier tweet saying “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter has
accused him of “glorifying violence”
Joe Biden has called out President Donald Trump following his tweet about shooting protesters. The presumptive Democratic nominee weighed in as conditions in Minneapolis grow more fraught.
“Enough,” Biden tweeted on Friday morning before writing a thread about Trump’s response to the violence in Minnesota. He also addressed the arrest of a CNN team during a live broadcast.
Enough.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 29, 2020
“This is not abstract: a black reporter was arrested while doing his job this morning, while the white police officer who killed George Floyd remains free,” Biden said.
“I am glad swift action was taken, but this, to me, says everything.”
“I will not lift the President’s tweet,” Biden went on. “I will not give him that amplification.”
“But he is calling for violence against American citizens during a moment of pain for so many. I’m furious, and you should be too.”
Events surrounding the death of George Floyd have developed rapidly over the past 24 hours. President Trump’s tweet about shooting looters was tagged by Twitter for “glorifying violence”.
Hours later, the official White House Twitter account shared the same message and it too was flagged by Twitter for violating the site’s terms of service.
A CNN team arrested on Friday morning were released later in the day. Biden said he would be speaking about events in Minnesota later.
Joe Biden has warned of the “open wound” of racial injustice in the U.S. following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The former Vice President spoke at a virtual campaign event.
“We can’t ignore that we are in a country with an open wound right now — a -wound far older and deeper than…George Floyd’s killing – and his brutal, brutal death captured on film,” Biden said.
“His final words, pleading for breathe. ‘Let me breathe, I can’t breathe.’ It’s ripped open anew this—this ugly underbelly of our society.”
Biden briefly touched on the violent turn of protests in Minnesota, urging peaceful demonstrations. But he acknowledged the anger.
“But people all across this country are enraged and rightly so,” he said.
“Every day African-Americans go about their lives with constant anxiety and trauma of wondering ‘Will I be next?’ Sounds like an exaggeration, but it’s not.”
“These tragedies, these injustices cut at the very heart of our most sacred of beliefs — that all Americans, equal in rights and in dignity, are part of an ingrained systemic cycle of racism and oppression that throughout every part of our society.”
“We need to make sure justice is real for the Floyd family, that the protections and the rule of law are real for every American, that officers in the Floyd case must be held accountable, including with the FBI investigation and independent Department of Justice civil rights investigation.”
“If we’re not committed as a nation, with every ounce of purpose in our beings — not just to binding up this wound in hope that somehow the scab once again will cover things over.”
“But to treat the underlying injury, we’re never going to eventually heal,” the presumptive Democratic nominee said.
