![]() “You know, my heart goes out to the parents and the family and the friends,” he told reporters this month. And he has even appeared to advocate for the rougher treatment of people in police custody, speaking dismissively of the police practice of shielding the heads of handcuffed suspects as they are being placed in patrol cars.īut Trump’s tone has changed in recent weeks as he has repeatedly expressed dismay at footage of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old black man fatally shot in February in Georgia while jogging. ![]() Trump also spent years railing against NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality. Trump has never apologized, telling reporters last year: “You have people on both sides of that.” In 1989, he took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, five young men of color who were wrongly convicted of a brutal assault on a jogger. Trump has a long history of injecting himself into racially sensitive cases. Trump has, however, invoked those words on several occasions to mock political rivals, even bringing his hands to his neck for dramatic effect. Video of the encounter was viewed millions of times online and Garner’s dying words, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement. He has never addressed the 2014 death of Eric Garner, who was placed in a chokehold by police trying to arrest him for selling loose cigarettes. “This is something that is a local matter and that’s something that we feel should be left up to the local authorities,” then-White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said at the time. Trump has been silent on a number of high-profile police-involved killings, including that of Stephon Clark, a black man shot by Sacramento police in 2018. “This has nothing to do with politics and is only about making sure justice is done, and anyone who suggests otherwise is only seeking to sow division and ignore the President’s unwavering support for the African-American community,” Deere said, citing Trump’s support for criminal justice reform legislation, Opportunity Zones and historically black colleges and universities. White House spokesman Judd Deere said Trump was taking the death seriously. “So therefore he cannot be upset when people feel that it’s empty words because it is so out of character.” ![]() Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist and Trump critic who has known the president for decades. “This is the first race-tinged case that I’ve ever heard him address” as president, said the Rev. But some activists doubt that Trump has suddenly evolved on the issue of police brutality and instead see election-year political calculations. Once more likely to hew to the “blue lives matter” mantra, Trump and his allies are questioning an officer’s conduct and calling for justice for Floyd. “I feel very, very badly,” Trump said Thursday of George Floyd’s death while handcuffed and in the custody of Minneapolis police. But it was a very different tone for President Donald Trump, who has often been silent in the face of white-on-black violence and has a long history of defending police. Romney, who marched with a group of Evangelicals to the White House in a Sunday evening demonstration, is believed to be the first major Republican politician to say "Black Lives Matter," a phrase that has become a rallying cry in favor of racial justice.It was the kind of personal statement expected from a president in response to the disturbing video of a black man gasping for help as a white policeman pinned him to the street by the neck. The senator from Utah told Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson that he was marching "to end violence, to end brutality, and to make sure that people understand that Black Lives Matter." Hard to believe, with this kind of political talent, his numbers would "tank" so badly in Utah!," Trump wrote while re-tweeting a video of Romney marching in Washington, DC on Sunday night. Trump and Romney have clashed on many issues during Trump's presidency, most prominently when Romney voted to convict Trump on a charge of abusing his office during his January impeachment trial. Mitt Romney of Utah for attending a peaceful demonstration in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in a Monday morning tweet. ![]()
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