Senate Democrats plan to introduce a joint resolution condemning the way protesters were cleared from a park near the White House Monday ahead of President Trump’s visit to a church rioters burned on Sunday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has condemned Trump for allegedly ordering police to clear out the protesters with gas and rubber bullets.
Democrats accuse Trump of ordering the removal of protesters and say he did so for a photo opportunity in front of the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, which was set ablaze on Sunday.
Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, accused Trump of “ripping apart” the country by “tear-gassing peaceful protesters” at Lafayette Park.
In a floor speech Tuesday, Schumer said the clearing of the park “may well have been illegal” and “was blatantly unconstitutional.”
Schumer said Trump “ordered troops to attack peaceful American citizens exercising their constitutional rights by tear-gassing them in a public park while military helicopters flew overhead.”
It’s not clear whether tear gas was used or another type of gas, or whether Trump administration officials ordered the U.S. Park Police to clear out the protesters.
The Democrats’ resolution would express “that Congress condemns the President of the United States for ordering Federal officers to use gas and rubber bullets against the Americans who were peaceably protesting in Lafayette Square in Washington, DC on the night of June 1, 2020, thereby violating the constitutional rights of those peaceful protestors.”
The resolution also states “that violence and looting are unlawful, unacceptable and contrary to the purpose of peaceful protests,” a Schumer aide said.
