'We don't have a family pastor': Jacob Blake's father disputes Trump's account of trying to reach the family
- In a live interview on CNN on Monday, Jacob Blake's father disputed President Donald Trump's account of the White House trying to get the Blake family on the phone.
- Less than an hour earlier, Trump said during a press briefing that he was unable to get in touch with the Blakes because "they wanted to have lawyers involved, and I thought that was inappropriate so I didn't do that." He continued: "But I did speak with the pastor of the family."
- The White House senior communications adviser Ben Williamson tweeted: "The President was referring to the pastor of Julia Jackson — Jacob Blake's mother."
- The family's attorney later said the president reached out to Jacob Blake's mother's pastor and Trump declined to have a call if their legal team monitored it.
Minutes after President Donald Trump explained why he wasn't able to get on the phone with Jacob Blake's family, Blake's father disputed the president's stated reason.
Thousands of Americans have been protesting against police brutality and racism anew after a white police officer shot Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 23. He is paralyzed from the waist down, and the officer is on administrative leave while the Wisconsin Department of Justice investigates.
Earlier Monday evening, Trump said from behind the White House lectern during a press briefing that the Blake family "wanted to have lawyers involved," so the president ended up speaking with the "family pastor" instead.
"We don't have a family pastor," Blake's father, also named Jacob, said on CNN when the host Jim Acosta asked why Trump said he spoke with a pastor and not the family.
The elder Blake was adamant that he did not want to "play politics" with his son's life, later adding, along with his lawyer, that he and his family received threats deemed serious enough that they had to temporarily relocate.
Benjamin Crump, the family attorney, told Acosta that the White House had been coordinating with Blake's mother and a pastor for her family to work out a phone call with the president.
"But for some reason," Crump said, "the call never came."
After the CNN interview aired, the White House senior communications adviser Ben Williamson tweeted: "The President was referring to the pastor of Julia Jackson — Jacob Blake's mother."
The Blake family's legal team later released a statement saying that Trump had reached out to Jackson's pastor and that the president declined to have a call if the family's legal team monitored it.
"If the call had occurred, Ms. Jackson was prepared to ask President Trump to watch the video of Mr. Blake's shooting and to do what she has asked all of America to do — examine your heart," the statement on Crump's Twitter account said.
The Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, spoke with Blake's family on Wednesday. In a separate interview with CNN that day, Jackson said she missed Trump's call.
"I'm sorry I missed your call," she said on CNN, addressing Trump. "Because had I not missed your call maybe the comments that you made would have been different and I'm not mad at you at all."
Jackson said she had the "utmost respect" for the president, adding: "Like I said before, and I'm not saying this to him directly, we should always get the details from the right source before we start throwing bricks."
Trump is expected to visit Kenosha on Tuesday, despite Gov. Tony Evers' request for the president to reconsider.
"I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing," Evers wrote in a letter to the White House on Sunday. "I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together."