Those who thought the protests in the streets would help Donald Trump maybe in for a sad awaking….
“There is a better way — the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a peace rooted in justice,” Bush said in the statement. “I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way.”
Describing himself as “anguished” by the death of George Floyd, who died more than a week ago after his neck was held under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer, Bush urged white Americans to seek ways to support, listen and understand black Americans who still face “disturbing bigotry and exploitation.”
The statement by the nation’s 43rd president does not mention Trump, but his call for compassion and unity presents a stark contrast to the current president’s more inflammatory rhetoric….
image…Former president George W. Bush in October. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Senate Republicans offered rare criticism of President Donald Trump on Tuesday after protesters outside the White House were cleared out with tear gas the day before so the president could pose for photos in front of a historic church.
“It was painful to watch peaceful protesters be subjected to tear gas in order for the president to go across the street to a church that I believe he’s attended only once,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). “I thought that the president came across as unsympathetic and as insensitive to the rights of people to peaceful protest.”
“There is a fundamental — a constitutional — right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop,” added Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who also decried rioting and looting. “Every public servant in America should be lowering the temperature.”
And Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said it was “definitely not” right for peaceful protesters, who were gathered around Lafayette Park in front of the White House, to be sprayed with tear gas. And he criticized the president for walking to St. John’s Episcopal Church right before the 7 p.m. curfew, because “everyone knew there were going to be protesters in that area.”
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