Senate Republicans Brush Aside Trump Gassing Protesters At White House
Top Senate Republicans on Tuesday brushed aside the use of force against hundreds of peaceful protesters gathered to demand an end to police brutality against Black Americans near the White House.
Some questioned whether it was a real protest in the first place.
“That wasn’t even a protest ― that was a provocation that was created deliberately for national television,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“Show me the pictures of that crowd and tell me those are real protesters and not professional agitators,” Rubio added.
On Monday evening, ahead of a citywide curfew, law enforcement officials in riot gear and on horseback fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse a largely peaceful crowd gathered to protest the death of George Floyd in Lafayette Park near the White House. Police also hit an Australian journalist and punched his camera, prompting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to call for an investigation.
Shortly after protesters were forced from the area, President Donald Trump walked from the White House through the park to a historic church that was set on fire during earlier demonstrations over the weekend. Outside, he posed for photos with other members of his administration and held up a Bible.
Religious leaders at the church, an Episcopal parish in Washington, D.C., were aghast at the events, which were reportedly personally ordered by U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr. The nation’s top law enforcement officer was present on the ground and accompanied Trump to the church.
“I was coughing ... we were trying to help people as the police — in full riot gear — drove people toward us,” one rector who had been passing out snacks and water to protesters at the church said afterward.
Democrats, meanwhile, condemned the move and called it dictatorial.
The extraordinary scene followed intense clashes between police and the public in...
