By Associated Press
The White House was briefly on lockdown Friday amid nearby protesting, according to reports.
Across the U.S., some protests have become violent relating to the death of George Floyd. The handcuffed black man pleaded for air as a white police officer knelt on his neck.
Protesters gathered outside the White House, with President Donald Trump inside, and some tried to push through barriers set up by the U.S. Secret Service along Pennsylvania Avenue.
Trump spent Friday walking back his post-midnight “thugs” tweet about Minneapolis protesters that added to outrage over the police killing of a black man.
Trump’s later repeated condemnation of the killing and outreach to the man’s family was a marked change in tone from his earlier comments that also invoked a civil-rights-era phrase fraught with racist overtones.
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Trump had written in a tweet that was quickly flagged by Twitter as violating rules against “glorifying violence.” Trump later said his comments had been misconstrued. “Frankly it means when there’s looting, people get shot and they die,” he said.
Trump’s whiplash comments came after protesters torched a Minneapolis police station on Thursday night, capping three days of searing demonstrations over the death of Floyd.
Trump also revealed that he had been in touch with Floyd’s family as he continued to denounce the circumstances of the man’s killing, which he called “a terrible insult to police and to policemen.”
“I just expressed my sorrow,” Trump told reporters. “He was in tremendous pain, obviously, and couldn’t breathe. And it was very obvious to anybody that watched it.”
Still, Trump called on protesters to keep their demonstrations peaceful.
“The family of George is entitled to justice, and the people of Minnesota are entitled to live in safety,” he said. “Law and order will prevail.”
Twitter’s decision to flag Trump’s tweet — the second time it has acted this week — came a day after he signed an executive order challenging the social media giant’s protections against lawsuits as he accuses it of stifling conservative voices. The warning label prevented the tweet from being shared or liked, though it could still be viewed by users.
The White House, trying to skirt the blockage, reposted the message on its own official Twitter account Friday morning. Twitter quickly flagged that tweet, too, accusing the White House of promoting violence.
Supporters of the president balked at the move.
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale accused the media, Biden and other Democrats of “purposefully misrepresenting what the President had said, and showing once again that they are incapable of resisting their base impulse of dividing Americans, solely for the purpose of political gain, ratings, and cable news profit.”
