“It’s been inflammatory, and it’s not OK for that officer to choke George Floyd to death but we have to call for calm. We have to have police reform called for. We’ve called out our National Guard and our State Police, but the rhetoric that’s coming out of the White House is making it worse,” [Illinois Governor J.B.] Pritzker said. “And I need to say that people are feeling real pain out there. And we’ve got to have national leadership in calling for calm and making sure that we’re addressing the concerns of the legitimate peaceful protestors. That will help us to bring order.”
Trump responded, “OK, well thank you very much, J.B. I don’t like your rhetoric very much either because I watched your response to coronavirus, and I don’t like your rhetoric either. I think you could have done a much better job, frankly.”
The president also said the country needs “law and order.”
Do we need a President hiding in a bunker with the lights off, telling everybody else to get tough?
“We’re strongly looking for arrests,” Trump said on the teleconference call with Attorney General William Barr and Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also on the line, according a source familiar with his remarks. Trump said he fully agreed with the way Minneapolis Gov. Tim Walz handled protests over the last few days.
“We got a lot of men. We have all the men and women that you need. But people aren’t calling them up. You have to dominate,” Trump said. “If you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you. You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.”
“And you have to arrest people and you have to try people and they have to go to jail for a long periods of time,” Trump said.
....
“It’s going to get worse and worse just like Occupy Wall Street. It was a disaster,” Trump said, adding “one day, they just said that’s enough and they just went and wiped them out.”
“And after that, everything was beautiful and that was the last time we heard about it,” he said.
....
“They’re anarchists, whether you like it or not. I know some of you guys have a different persuasion and it’s OK, I fully understand. I understand. I’m for everybody. I represent everybody. I’m not representing radical right, radical left. I’m representing everybody. But you have to know what you’re dealing with and it’s happened before. It’s happened numerous times.
....
Despite fires set ablaze during protests and looters smashing stores with baseball bats on Sunday, he said “Washington was under very good control and we’re going to have it under more control.”
“We’re going to pull in thousands of people,” he said.
“But you’ve got to arrest people. You have to try people. You have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff,” Trump said. And you have to let them know that. They’re trying to get people out on bail in Minneapolis. I understand they’re in there trying to get all these guys out on bail.”
Kerosene. Fire.
MORE: Trump tells governors: "You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again," per audio obtained by @CBSNews— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) June 1, 2020
One person listening in on the call describes the president's words and tone as "unhinged."— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) June 1, 2020
No, really? Unhinged?
JFC he's completely off his ass. https://t.co/BVauzbnGC1— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 1, 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment