- President Donald Trump's erratic responses to
protests over the death of George Floyd have only worsened the situation, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and New Jersey Sen.Cory Booker said Sunday. - Bottoms appeared Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," where she said Trump should "just stop talking" as the tense state of cities across the US and the president's bizarre statements "is like
Charlottesville all over again." - Booker said past comments from Trump, like describing Baltimore as a "rodent and rat-infested mess" and continually condemning the exonerated Central Park Five exemplify why he "doesn't deserve a response."
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said President Donald Trump's erratic and dismissive responses to the fiery protests over the death of George Floyd have only made matters worse.
Bottoms appeared Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," where she said Trump should "just stop talking."
"This is like Charlottesville all over again," she said, pointing to the 2017 white supremacist rally in Virginia and the counterprotest and clashes with police that turned deadly. After the incident that left three dead, Trump said there were "very fine people on both sides."
"He speaks and he makes it worse," she said. "There are times when you should just be quiet, and I wish that he would just be quiet."
In the case that Trump "can't be silent," Bottom said, "if there's somebody of good sense and good conscience in the White House, put him in front of a teleprompter and pray that he reads it and at least says the right things."
—State of the Union (@CNNSotu) May 31, 2020
Protests broke out in Minneapolis and across the US after Floyd, a black Minnesota man who was killed after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd said he couldn't breathe.
The death was caught on video, and prompted protests in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Detroit, Dallas, Washington, DC, and other US cities beginning on Tuesday and raging into the weekend.
One of Trump's earliest responses to the protests that raised concern was aired on Twitter, where dismissed demonstrators as "THUGS" who were "dishonoring the memory of George Floyd." He also tweeted "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," a phrase that was traced back to Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, who has been identified as central to the violence that engulfed the city during the civil rights movement.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
Sen. Cory Booker echoed Bottoms' disappointment in the president's response. The senator, who also appeared on "State of the Union," said past comments from Trump like describing Baltimore as a "rodent and rat-infested mess" and continually condemning the exonerated Central Park Five exemplify why he "doesn't deserve a response."
"Every time I respond to Donald Trump, I do it from a place where I realize he doesn't deserve a response," Booker said. "He doesn't deserve my attention or my emotion. Our people do. Donald Trump no longer has the capacity to break my heart, to surprise me."
Booker also said on the show that he was drafting legislation to establish a national registry police misconduct registry to track incidents of force and people killed at the hands of police.
"Now it's a time to take this energy and this anger and this focus and keep it, until we actually change laws and systems of accountability that can raise standards in our country," Booker said.
—State of the Union (@CNNSotu) May 31, 2020Read the original article on Insider