Trump remains mum as pols denounce brutality
A chorus of politicians from across the country banded together Friday in demanding justice and reform in light of the police-involved killing of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis — but the most prominent statesman of them all had a different message to offer.
While most Americans were asleep early Friday, President Trump thumbed out a tweet threatening to send the military into Minneapolis to start “shooting” protesting “THUGS” enraged by the shocking video that captured the Monday death of George Floyd at the hand of a white police officer.
“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” Trump posted around 1 a.m. after protesters had set fire to some buildings in the city, including a police station. “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
The unsettling tweet, which Twitter censored because it violated the platform’s rules against “glorifying violence,” set the tone for most of the day, even as Trump attempted to walk it back and offer sympathy for Floyd’s family.
In a follow-up tweet later in the day, the president claimed his “shooting” quip was not meant as threat, but as “a fact” since “looting” invariably “leads to shooting.”
At a White House event Friday evening, Trump said he had spoken with Floyd’s family and tried to patch things over with protesters in Minneapolis.
“The looters should not be allowed to drown out the voices of so many peaceful protesters,” Trump said. “I understand the hurt. I understand the pain. People really have been through a lot. The family of George is entitled to justice, and the people of Minnesota are entitled to live in safety.”
But Democrats largely didn’t buy Trump’s semantic parsing and accused him of fomenting violence. “This is a national crisis and we need real leadership right now,” Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said via videostream from his home in Delaware. “This is no time for incendiary tweets. It’s no time to encourage violence.”
New York Rep. Nydia Velazquez concurred.
“For the president of the United States to escalate tensions with dangerous tweets, threatening violence against the people of Minneapolis is beyond abhorrent,” she said. “We’ve long known this president thrives on stoking racial animus and deepening divisions, but his latest remarks are a new low.”
The police officer who pressed his knee against Floyd’s throat for several minutes — even as he pleaded that he could not breathe — was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.