» Trump exacerbates rage over the Floyd case,

President Donald Trump spent Friday walking back his post-midnight “thugs” tweet about Minneapolis protesters that added to outrage over the police killing of a black man.

Trump’s later repeated condemnation of the killing and outreach to the man’s family was a marked change in tone from his earlier comments that also invoked a civil-rightsera phrase fraught with racist overtones.

“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Trump had written in a tweet that was quickly flagged by Twitter

as violating rules against “glorifying violence.” Trump later said his comments had been misconstrued. “Frankly it means when there’s looting, people get shot and they die,” he said.

Trump’s whiplash comments came after protesters torched a Minneapolis police station Thursday night, capping three days of searing demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, who was captured on video pleading for air as a white police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes.

And they underscored Trump’s complicated relationship with race as he tries to maintain a law-and-order mantle while looking to appeal to black voters during an election year.

Trump, in his tweets, borrowed a phrase once used by former Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in a 1967 speech outlining his department’s efforts to “combat young hoodlums who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign.” In the speech, Headley said his department had been successful “because I’ve let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

“We don’t mind being accused of police brutality,” he said, according to news reports from the time.

Trump, after hours of backlash, said Friday evening that he was unaware of the origins of the phrase. “But I’ve heard it for a long time, as most people have. And frankly it means when there’s looting, people get shot and they die,” he said.

Trump also revealed that he had been in touch with Floyd’s family as he continued to denounce the circumstances of the man’s killing, which he called “a terrible insult to police and to policemen.”

“I just expressed my sorrow,” Trump told reporters. “He was in tremendous pain, obviously, and couldn’t breathe. And it was very obvious to anybody that watched it.”