Bible, but no ‘justice’
Dems blast brutal clearing of park for Trump’s church photo-op
WASHINGTON — Democrats on both sides of Capitol Hill vowed congressional action Tuesday after President Trump’s brutal clearing of protesters from Lafayette Park outside the White House the night before.
Heavily armed and armored federal police waded into the park Monday night, battering peaceful protesters and members of the press alike, shortly before Trump strolled across the grounds to pose with a Bible in front of a church.
Labeling Trump “a dictator of division,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Trump’s strong-arm tactics against people following the law were worthy of a formal censure, and pledged that committees would probe who gave the orders.
“It was a terrible act,” Hoyer told reporters. “The president stokes violence. He stokes anger, he stokes division.”
“He did it because he didn’t like the news the night before when he was in a bunker and felt that he was cowering in that bunker,” Hoyer added. “He had to show, which is why he took his action, that he was not cowering in a corner. However, what he was doing was cowering behind federal police.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) condemned and derided Trump’s move by holding up her own Bible at a bill-passage ceremony and referencing Ecclesiastes. “It is the responsibility of all of us to take the time to heal,” she said. “We would hope that the president of the United States would follow the lead of so many other presidents before him to be a healer-in-chief and not a fanner of the flames.”
In the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would try to force passage of a resolution affirming the right to assemble and condemning the militaristic strike on the park and looting and violence.
“President Trump doesn’t care about justice or law and order. He cares only about his own politics and his own ego,” Schumer said “We will not allow the president to take away the First Amendment rights of Americans. Senate Republicans should stand with us, stand with the American people, stand with the
Constitution, stand with unifying us, not dividing us.”
Few Republicans, however, expressed interest in the startling assault at the park.
As GOP senators headed into their caucus luncheon Tuesday, many said nothing to reporters at all. But NBC reporter Kasie Hunt tweeted out the answers of some.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) allowed the inglorious episode was “not the America that I know.”
But most were unwilling to criticize Trump.
“I was grateful for the president’s leadership,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), asked about abuse of power, said there was, “By the protesters.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) conceded that George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police was criminal and that peaceful protests have been hijacked by violence, but he refused to fault Trump’s actions, and objected to Schumer’s resolution because it does.