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For D. Trump and the conservatives who support him, a presidential photo shoot was held Monday night on historic St. In the hands of John’s Episcopal Church with the Bible was a show of force, a symbolic act that he hoped to reassure and reassure Americans that he would restore order and justice after several nights of turmoil in US cities. USA After the death of George Floyd.
But such a public demonstration by D. Trump has received waves of condemnation from religious leaders, Democrats, and even some Republicans. Images of police using tear gas and incendiary grenades to chase protesters from Lafayette Square so the president could walk to a side church have become another focus of his presidency, and at a time when his support for society it is already weakening, mainly due to its role in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
No Republican governor publicly opposed D. Trump’s call to send troops to quell the riots and looting; Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a press conference that “the people of Texas can take care of the people of Texas.”
Such a parade of force did not deter protesters from demonstrating in the country’s capital and in other cities. Large crowds of protesters marched through the streets of Washington on Tuesday night, defying city authorities who introduced the curfew (7 p.m.) and the authority of D. Trump.
Some Protestant Christian leaders praised D. Trump’s decision to appear at the church.
“Holding the Bible in his hand, he wanted to tell us that he teaches that, yes, God hates racism, he is low,” but God also hates arbitrariness, “Pastor Robert Jeffress said in an interview with The Atlantic.
But the crisis, as well as Trump’s reaction, has opened prospects for the likely United States Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, who has allegedly taken advantage of the President’s crimes.
He said Tuesday on television from Philadelphia that if Trump had opened the Bible, “instead of mosquitoing it, he would have learned this: that we are all called to love one another as we love ourselves.”
Donald Trump at St. John’s Episcopal Churches
Wrong way
A survey by Monmouth University, published earlier this week, found 74 percent. Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, a troubling answer to a question that polls identify as critical to the chances of a presidential reelection. D. The short-term support rating fell from 46 to 42 percent compared to March.
Trump administration officials were considering using the law in the 1807 uprising to carry out their threats to send US troops to states and cities struggling to quell riots and looting, a source familiar with the situation said. But a consensus could not be reached.
“No decisions have been made on the issue,” White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday, when journalists were asked how seriously the idea was being taken. He expressed the hope that such a measure would not be “necessary”.
A brief appeal by the Oval Cabinet to the country is being considered and possible at the best time, but some presidential allies believe the move will not stop the protests.
“It would only spark a presidential fiasco for the worst reason: No matter how beautiful, poetic, or even unifying D. Trump’s appeal to the Oval Cabinet, it will not immediately stop the arbitrariness we see on the streets,” said Jason Miller, a former activist for D Trump 2016. spokesperson.
However, speaking on Monday night in the Rose Garden of the White House, Trump offered little to unite the country to heal the wounds opened by Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer to keep him serious and quiet. Rather, the President raised the power of the US Army. USA As his response to internal unrest.
And previous attempts to send a presidential message from the Oval Cabinet have been, as it were, ground into flour. The president’s March 11 speech on the coronavirus pandemic, in which he blamed China for the outbreak, caused the markets to collapse.
As criticism of violent police action mounted on Monday, the White House collided. The security zone spanned two blocks in all directions, with a fence erected overnight on the north edge of Lafayette Square. In addition to a brief visit to a Catholic shrine about 6.5 miles from the White House, D. Trump went nowhere and rejected any public comment.
But even for such a short trip, the President was reproached.
A “reprehensible” visit
Washington Catholic Archbishop Wilton called Gregory D. Trump’s reception at the shrine “reprehensible” after a police attack on protesters in Lafayette Square. The sanctuary is a monument to Saint Pope John Paul II, who, in Gregory’s opinion, would have condemned Trump’s actions, including his visit to St. John’s Church.
“I certainly would not tolerate the use of tear gas or other deterrents to silence, dissipate or intimidate them in front of the House of Prayer and Peace,” said Gregory.
The church said in a statement circulated on Twitter that it believed D. Trump would sign a legal ordinance on international religious freedom during his visit. “It would be an appropriate gesture, given that St. John Paul II was a tireless defender of religious freedom throughout his pontificate,” the statement said.
However, Trump signed the decree in a private setting when he returned to the White House.
Two Republican senators, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, have spoken out against the idea of using force tactics to alienate protesters from the White House so that the president can walk to st. Juan Church.
“There is no right to riot, there is no right to destroy the property of others, there is no right to throw stones at the police.” But there is a fundamental – constitutional – right to protest, and I am opposed to seeking a peaceful protest on behalf of a photo shoot, where the Word of God is treated as political support, “Sasse said in a statement.
J. Biden returns to the stage
Meanwhile, Mr. Biden appeared in public this week after spending weeks at home due to the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic. “When peaceful protesters are evicted from the door of the Casa del Pueblo, the White House, at the President’s door – using tear gas and incendiary grenades – to conduct a photo shoot in a noble church, we can be forgiven for to believe that the President is more concerned with power than with principles. ” Biden said.
D. Trump attacked the former vice president on Twitter.
“Lazy Joe has been in politics for forty years and has done nothing. Now he pretends to know the answers. He doesn’t even know the questions. Weakness will never defeat anarchists, thieves, or bandits, and Joe has been politically weak all his life. LAW AND PROCEDURE! ”, Wrote D. Trumpas on Twitter.
At the White House, the president’s walk to the church appears to be seen as a successful step in improving D. Trump’s image as an advocate of law, order, and religious freedom. The White House released a 30-second video of that moment in the context of the victorious music on Tuesday morning.
– The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 2, 2020
“It is a symbolic message for all that we will not allow the arsonists and anarchists who lit that flame, which I believe has really degraded the memory of people who have fallen in the name of their faith and religion, to anger.” We will not allow them to prevent us from practicing our religion, “Conway told Fox News.
Trump claimed on Twitter tonight that “Washington was the safest place on earth last night!” Despite the fact that crowds of protesters flocked to the streets of the city.
During a video call on Monday, the president harshly criticized the governors for not following their strict tactics against protesters, calling many of them “weak.” His message “unequivocally reveals that this president uses threatening words during his tenure as president and, of course, throughout his life,” Colorado State Governor Jared Polis told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.
“It must be clear: The president must not use the US military to shoot Americans like them,” he said.
Unclear order
Some in the immediate vicinity of the President agreed to take responsibility for the decision to use force to hunt down protesters from Lafayette Square; others were more inclined to distance themselves.
According to K. Conway, D. Trump himself did not order the expulsion of the protesters; According to her, it does not normally interfere with the security measures used to protect him.
A Pentagon official said Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army. The USA, Mark Milley, did not know beforehand that the protesters would be swept out of the square or that they would join Trump, who would go to church. However, Milley, a high-ranking US military officer. In the US, he was seen wearing a military uniform a few hours after a visit to the church during a visit to National Guard personnel stationed in Washington.
Esper told the BBC news service that the purpose of the visit to the church was to verify the damage done there.
Shortly after Tuesday, a Justice Department official reported that Attorney General William Barr had actively participated in the decision to expand the security zone around the White House, and that he had personally ordered the order, unexpectedly upon learning that it had not it had been done before Trump’s walk.
But the US park police. USA He reported hours later that they had decided to use pepper spray and smoke to dispel crowds of protesters after receiving instructions from their acting boss, Gregory Monahan, after they allegedly began throwing bricks, water bottles, and other items at park guards. . .
Witnesses, including journalists at the scene, say the protesters were peaceful as long as the police did not initiate the violence and that there were no advance warnings, contradicting Monahan’s statements.
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