Police chief orders officers to keep body cameras on during protests
President Trump avoided commenting on police, protesters, and George Floyd’s death during an event with pro-Trump African-American community leaders at the White House on Wednesday.
Instead, Trump said historically black colleges and universities “were treated very, very badly and I treated them very good,” and said the black community is “doing very well now.”
Trump and other participants also blasted the media in vitriolic terms.
Republican political consultant Raynard Jackson accused the media of “putting more poison into the black community than any drug dealer” and “killing more black folks than any white person with a sheet over their face.”
The President didn’t respond directly, but later added, “The media is almost 100% negative. It’s incredible.”
Even when participants steered the conversation to the black community’s relationship with law enforcement, the President did not comment.
Kareem Lanier with the pro-Trump Urban Revitalization Coalition told the President that problems with police abuses run deep in the African American community.
“This whole situation with this policing — it’s not new to black people,” Lanier said. “We’ve been used to it. As a kid I got harassed by the police all the time and I was a good – I think I was a good kid. But it’s a part of our community.”
After Lanier spoke, the President said that his comments were “well said,” and concluded the event.
Trump then took only one question from the press, but didn’t respond when asked twice about why the confederacy needed to be defended.
The event was not on Trump’s public schedule and was billed only as a “roundtable discussion.”
