Michael Levin: George Floyd's death sickens me, so do riots. That's not my America. Who speaks for me?

The thug disguised as a Minneapolis police officer who is charged with third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd does not speak for me.

The rioters on the streets of dozens of American cities, destroying valuable property, from shopping malls to synagogues, also do not speak for me.
So who does?
I am not a racist and neither are most Americans or most police officers.
I am not a destroyer of property and neither are most Americans.
Chances are, you are just as appalled by what happened in Minneapolis, and what has happened in American cities and in some other places around the world, as I am.

So who speaks for us?
I resent the implication that if I’m not torching police cars, I am condoning the actions of a bad cop.
I equally resent the implication that my attitudes toward race can be divined simply by looking at the color of my skin.
When it comes to race, it seems that we Americans have lost the plot.
There was a time, not that long ago, when we had begun to move toward a society where people judged each other as individuals, by the content of their character, in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words.
And somehow that morphed into a new kind of racism, where assumptions are made that if you’re white, you think this way, if you’re black, you think that way, if you’re straight, if you’re gay, and so on.
What happened?

When did we move from striving for color-blindness to living in a world where color and other forms of identity trump individual thinking?
The academy and social media deserve much of the blame.
College students are being taught to see life through a prism of race, gender and sexuality, as if you could define a human being in all of his or her complexity by a few key tests.
You can’t.
You can’t shorthand people.
And yet, my visits to college campuses over the last 10 years have indicated that the progressive movement has taught the young to view themselves and others almost entirely in terms of race, sexual identity, and so on.
We used to be people.

Now we’re categories.
And then what kids learn in college makes its way into the workplace, as they graduate and get jobs, and then into the culture, through the shorthanding of ideas that occurs in social media.

In the musical "South Pacific," there was a groundbreaking song about racism called “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught.” In other words, racism and hatred are not built into us from birth.  

All that gets amplified by progressive politicians who play the shame and blame game to accumulate more power and prestige.
And now we live in a world where interactions between people of different opinions, colors, religions or lack thereof, and sexual identity are rooted in distrust, cynicism and outright hatred.
In the musical "South Pacific," there was a groundbreaking song about racism called “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught.”
In other words, racism and hatred are not built into us from birth.
They are learned behaviors.

And in my lifetime, we recognized the folly of such bigoted thinking and we began to move toward a society where people were accepted as individuals and not judged as members of groups.
A far-from-perfect society, but a better society.
As Dr. King said, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
And then things went the other way.
The thug in a cop’s uniform who has been charged with murder was likely taught to believe certain things about race.
The thugs in expensive jeans and designer tops rampaging through our cities and destroying parts of an already fragile economy were carefully taught that annihilation and rage are appropriate responses to behavior of which they disapprove.
Neither of those kinds of people speaks for me.

Or, I would think, for you.
Or for who we are trying to be, fitfully, agonizingly, as a just society.
I am not a racist, or one who condones rogue cops or rioters.
They are not America.
This is not a society of blind hate.
We have come too far.

We took a wrong turn.
We sent our children to college, and the progressive movement that controls thought on college campuses carefully taught our children to hate.
And now we are reaping that whirlwind.

Journalists caught in the violent middle as Trump vows ‘law and order’

This is a heartbreaking time for our country, and journalists are caught squarely in the middle.
In covering the riots that have gripped cities across the country, they have been arrested, assaulted and shot, in some cases seemingly targeted by aggressive police tactics and in others besieged by angry protesters.
I don’t expect much sympathy for my much-maligned profession, but it’s a reminder that many journalists don’t just sit in climate-controlled studios, and a reflection of the broader fissions in our society.
At the same time, the media’s relentless focus on President Trump has cast him as essentially missing in action during this crisis, which may have prompted him--four hours after his press secretary said there was no need for a speech--to make a Rose Garden statement last night.
And by declaring “I am your president of law and order,” he followed the Nixon playbook of 1968 and sought to make violent protest, not police brutality, the dominant issue in this election year.
On the metaphor front, journalists seized on the president retreating to an underground bunker while rock-throwing protesters gathered strength outside the White House, which is unfair because the Secret Service made that call.
In the wake of the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, pundits and politicians have been faced with the dual challenge of grappling with the black community’s anger and frustration while cracking down on the violence and lawlessness that obscures that cause.
When Omar Jiminez, a black reporter for CNN, was arrested by Minnesota state police despite repeatedly offering to move, it was an outrage that led Gov. Tim Walz to apologize to the network. MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi and correspondent Garrett Haake have both been struck by rubber bullets. Police in numerous instances have either been reckless or antagonistic when it comes to journalists who are trying to cover the urban chaos.
Another victim in Minneapolis, Linda Tirado, a freelance photographer and activist, was shot in the left eye and says she has permanently lost vision in that eye.
On the other side, protesters smashed windows and defaced the famous red logo at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. In Washington, protesters threw punches and bottles as they chased a Fox News crew before the journalists found a police cruiser, a situation that anchor Leland Vittert compared to his coverage of Egypt’s Tahrir Square uprising. In Pittsburgh, KDKA photojournalist Ian Smith was brutally beaten by demonstrators and said another group saved his life by pulling him to safety.
Even the harshest critics of the media should decry these abominable tactics by both the police and the protesters, though in fairness the cops are often overwhelmed and numerous officers have been injured in the riots.
As for the coverage, a Washington Post news story said yesterday: “Never in the 1,227 days of Trump’s presidency has the nation seemed to cry out for leadership as it did Sunday, yet Trump made no attempt to provide it.
“That was by design. Trump and some of his advisers calculated that he should not speak to the nation because he had nothing new to say and had no tangible policy or action to announce yet, according to a senior administration official. Evidently not feeling an urgent motivation Sunday to try to bring people together, he stayed silent.”
“Privately,” says the New York Times, “advisers complained about his tweets, acknowledging that they were pouring fuel on an already incendiary situation.” These included the missive about “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” which Trump later clarified by saying he meant people in the crowds could be hurt.
Now it’s no secret that the president has struggled in the area of race relations. There was Charlottesville, of course, and his back-where-they-came-from tweets about members of the Squad, and denigrating Baltimore as “a rat and rodent infested mess.”
Trump also has an instinct to rally his side against the other side, which makes it harder to unite the country. He blamed Democrats when the pandemic exploded and blamed Democratic mayors and governors for not controlling the urban violence. In fact, he told governors on a conference call yesterday that most of them are “weak” and “you have to dominate or you’ll look like a bunch of jerks.”
He has blamed the media on both fronts as well. And in the past week he has gone after China, the WHO and Joe Scarborough.
But there is a level on which the president is getting a bum rap. He said right away he was shocked by the video of Floyd being killed by an officer’s knee pressing against his neck for nine minutes.
At the SpaceX launch in Florida on Saturday, Trump called Floyd’s death “a grave tragedy. It should never have happened. It has filled Americans all over the country with horror, anger and grief.” Those remarks got little attention.
In the same comments, Trump said he was allied with people seeking justice and peace, but opposed to “anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack, and menace.”
But the president was all tough talk last night, with just a nod to peaceful protest, in a split-screen moment when riot police stood guard at Lafayette Park across from the White House. He railed against “professional anarchists,” Antifa and “violent mobs,” spoke of innocent people being killed and the capital’s monuments defaced. “These are acts of domestic terror,” he declared, “a crime against God,” and vowed to deploy the military. Donald Trump had chosen his side.
Any public official, Democrat or Republican, has to take the stance that what happened to Floyd is reprehensible but that lawlessness is unacceptable. At the moment, the violence from New York to Philadelphia to Minneapolis to Santa Monica is overshadowing the cause that the protesters profess to embrace.
The looting and the fires and the rock-throwing do more than jeopardize the safety of journalists and of community residents; they change the national subject from police brutality to law and order. And, as happened after the 1968 riots, that can cause a political backlash that can last for years.

Rubio defends Trump after criticism over St. John’s ‘photo op’

The protesters outside the White House Monday who were cleared by police prior to President Trump’s brief visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church were “professional agitators” and the media fell for their “calculated” tactics, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on late Monday.
“They knew the street needed to be cleared before 7 pm curfew,” Rubio tweeted. “But they deliberately stayed to trigger police action & get the story they wanted, that “police attacked peaceful protesters.”
The criticism that Trump faced after being photographed outside the church was swift. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement to call out the “photo-op.”
“Across our country, Americans are protesting for an end to the pattern of racial injustice and brutality we saw most recently in the murder of George Floyd,” the statement read. “Yet, at a time when our country cries out for unification, this President is ripping it apart.  Tear-gassing peaceful protestors without provocation just so that the President could pose for photos outside a church dishonors every value that faith teaches us.”
The Associated Press reported that at about 6:30 p.m., law enforcement officers were “aggressively forcing the protesters back “firing tear gas and deploying flash bangs into the crowd to disperse them from the park for seemingly no reason. It was a jarring scene as police in the nation’s capital forcefully cleared young men and women gathered legally in a public park on a sunny evening, all of it on live television.”
Washington D.C.'s Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted that federal police "used munitions on "peaceful protesters" a full 25 minutes before the curfew. She called the decision shameful.
The church caught fire the previous night during unrest over Floyd’s death in police custody. Trump has spoken out about Floyd’s death and called the video “horrible.” Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and the three other officers with Chauvin were fired but not yet charged.
Attorneys for Floyd's family released the results of an independent autopsy report Monday afternoon showing that Floyd's death was caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.
Another autopsy, conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office, stated that Floyd died from "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual restraint, and neck compression" while being restrained, Fox 9 reported. Its updated results went public Monday evening.
Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, the likely Democrat nominee to face Trump in 2020, also criticized the president for removing the protesters.
"Tonight the President of the United States used the American military to shoot peaceful protestors with rubber bullets & tear gas them. For a photo op," Clinton said. "This is a horrifying use of presidential power against our own citizens, & has no place anywhere, let alone in America. Vote."
NPR reported that U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops were tasked with removing the protesters. The report said Trump stopped in front of the church, held up a Bible and said, “We have the greatest country in the world. Keep it nice and safe.”
Trump was also criticized by church leaders who said they were not aware of the visit.  Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry told NPR that Trump “used a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes. This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his action did nothing to help us or to heal us.”
Fox News' David Aaro, Bradford Betz, Vandana Rambaran and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Cartoons 2020

Gregg Jarrett: Rod Rosenstein must be grilled by senators Wednesday about his abuse of power

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein played a central role in the Russia hoax. He was vindictive, conniving and unscrupulous as he sought to destroy the very president he pretended to support and serve.
On Wednesday, Rosenstein will finally be questioned about his actions by the Senate Judiciary Committee as its first witness into an investigation of the origins and evolution of the Russia probe that was opened by the FBI in the summer of 2016. Ten months later —thanks to Rosenstein— it morphed into a special counsel case that dragged on for an agonizing 22 months.  
It was Rosenstein who presided over the special counsel investigation of President Trump, all the while conspiring behind the scenes to overthrow him. The duplicity was classic Rosenstein.
He well knew that his appointment of Robert Mueller in May of 2017 was an illegitimate abuse of power and contrary to federal regulations governing the naming of a special counsel, as explained in my last column. At the time, there was no evidence that Trump or his campaign had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election. It was all there in the FBI files, hidden from the public but readily available to Rosenstein.
Months earlier in January of 2017, the FBI had debunked the anti-Trump “dossier” as little more than scurrilous lies, exaggerations and fiction. There was no other credible evidence of a collusion conspiracy. James Comey’s FBI knew it, and so did Rosenstein. Yet, he was undeterred. In a fit of anger, he hired Mueller for an investigation in search of a crime, which is anathema to the rule of law.
The White House was understandably shocked. And so were other top officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ). As I recounted in my book, "Witch Hunt: The Story Of The Greatest Mass Delusion In American Political History" (page 155), Rosenstein was allegedly confronted in his office over what he had done:
“Rosenstein was literally cowering … hiding behind and somewhat below his desk. ‘Am I gunna get fired?’ blubbered Rosenstein.” 
It is a scathing indictment of Rosenstein’s lack of character that he only seemed to care about himself. Never mind that he had launched — on his own authority — a national nightmare that would hobble the presidency for two more years, divide Americans over an unfounded scandal and inflict profound damage to our system of justice.
Why did Rosenstein appoint Mueller? It was an act of retaliation. The deputy attorney general was furious that Democrats in Congress blamed him for the firing of Comey as FBI director.  Rosenstein, who authored the firing memo, was suddenly “regretful and emotional,” according to people who interacted with him at the time. He became unglued and blamed Trump for all the criticism. Mueller was Rosenstein’s revenge.
But hiring the special counsel was merely the first part of Rosenstein’s nefarious scheme. Part two constituted one of the most diabolical plots in American political history.
The Attempted Coup          
The moment Comey was fired by the president, Rosenstein began meeting secretly with Comey’s temporary replacement, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe (who was later fired for lying). McCabe decided to initiate a new FBI investigation of Trump simultaneous with Rosenstein’s appointment of Mueller as special counsel. In other words, they double-teamed Trump even though neither one had a scintilla of evidence to justify their actions.
At the same time, Rosenstein and McCabe convened repeatedly behind closed doors to discuss a plan to evict the duly elected president of the United States from office and undo the 2016 election results. According to McCabe, it was Rosenstein’s idea to depose Trump by secretly recording the president for the purpose of gathering incriminating evidence of something —anything. Armed with such supposed evidence, he would recruit cabinet members to remove Trump under the 25th Amendment
Here is what McCabe later told CBS’s "60 Minutes":   
“The deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the White House. He said, ‘I never get searched when I go into the White House, I could easily wear a recording device, they wouldn’t know it was there.’ Now, he wasn’t joking, he was absolutely serious, and in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had.”   
McCabe didn’t stop there in unraveling the sordid story. He explained how Rosenstein intended to use whatever evidence he might gather furtively as a basis for convincing cabinet officials to remove Trump from office.
“Discussion of the 25th Amendment was simply, Rod raised the issue and discussed it with me in the context of thinking about how many other cabinet officials might support such an effort.”
McCabe claimed that Rosenstein was already “counting votes” among cabinet members he had contacted surreptitiously. Government memos confirm this account, and those documents were handed over to Mueller. Did he do anything about it? Of course not. The special counsel report made no mention of it.        

The Senate Judiciary Committee must confront Rosenstein about his warrant application. The Justice Department has stated that it was illegally obtained without probable cause.

The plot to carry out the equivalent of a coup would have been a lawless misuse of power. The 25th Amendment provides for the removal of a president if he is incapacitated or “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Disliking a president or his decision-making is not a basis for evicting him from office under the amendment.
When the story of Rosenstein’s scheme was later revealed in news reports, he dismissed the story as “inaccurate and factually incorrect.” But in his meticulously worded statement to the media, he did not deny seeking an illegitimate basis for removing Trump. It was a canny misdirection and quite typical of Rosenstein’s propensity for deflection.
In a bid to hang on to his job, Rosenstein arranged a meeting with Trump. Here is what the president told me about their conversation:
President Trump: He (Rosenstein) said it didn’t happen. He said he never said it. What he told other people is that he was joking. But to me, he claimed he never said it. 
Jarrett: Did you believe him?
President: I didn’t really know what to believe.  
So which was it? A joke or a fiction? Logically, it cannot be both. During which account was Rosenstein telling the truth? In one of them, he must have been lying.
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee must grill Rosenstein in detail about his attempted coup to remove the president and subvert democracy.
Spying On Carter Page
The four successive surveillance warrants to spy on former Trump campaign associate Carter Page were serial abuses of constitutional rights and the legal process. Factual asserts submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) were not just wrong, they were never validated as true even though the FBI and DOJ officials who signed the documents swore that the information was, indeed, verified. The applications were filled with errors, omissions, deceptions and lies.
Rosenstein signed off on the final renewal in June of 2017 shortly after he wrongfully appointed the special counsel and schemed to depose Trump from office. The deputy attorney general was desperate to come up with some kind of evidence that would justify what he had already done.
The FBI and Rosenstein relied almost entirely on the “dossier” composed by ex-British spy Christopher Steele. It was phony on its face. It was commissioned by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democrats. Newly declassified documents show that it was nothing more than malicious Russian disinformation. By January of 2017, the FBI knew this. Surely, Rosenstein knew it too. All of this was concealed from the judges.
Yet, he affixed his signature on the warrant to spy on Page, thereby representing to the court that the information was both true and verified when he must have known that it was not. Lying to a court constitutes fraud and other potential crimes. Rosenstein was well aware of this, as any lawyer would be.
Consider what he said at a public forum several months after he signed the warrant application:
“In order to get a FISA warrant, you need an affidavit signed by a career law enforcement officer who swears the information is true… And if it is wrong, that person is going to face consequences. You can face discipline and sometimes prosecution.”      
Rosenstein’s words frame a prophetic indictment of his own wrongful and, arguably, illegal actions. He swore the information was true and verified. The opposite was true. Rosenstein was acutely aware that the FBI had spent months trying in vain to verify the evidence.
A month after his public remarks, Rosenstein was questioned by the House Judiciary Committee. He refused to answer direct questions but suggested that he might not have even read the warrant application that he signed. Grudgingly, he admitted that he did not always read what he was signing.
It is ironic that the man who so sternly lectured an audience about how imperative it was for every prosecutor to ensure that a spy warrant contained truthful information is the same man who may never have bothered to read the one he signed against Carter Page. Or perhaps he read it but didn’t care about the many lies and misrepresentations contained therein.
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee must confront Rosenstein about his warrant application. The Justice Department has stated that it was illegally obtained without probable cause. It has Rosenstein’s dirty fingerprints all over it.
Attorney General William Barr has denounced government officials for their “misconduct,” “malfeasance and misfeasance” and “clear abuse of the FISA process.” Rosenstein was an integral part of it.
Barr has said that officials “misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source.”
Rosenstein is far more guilty than others. As the highest-ranking official involved, he had a special and affirmative duty to ensure that the law was being scrupulously followed. His chronic failures and malevolent actions, as described above, constitute an egregious breach of trust.
Come Wednesday, senators in their questioning of Rosenstein should give no quarter in demanding honest answers from a man who has shown no regard for either honesty or justice.
     

Buck Sexton: The press and protesters are fanning flames, not President Trump

Podcast host Buck Sexton on Sunday called “completely unfair” the NBC report that claimed President Trump was fanning flames amid the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

“I had the president on my radio show last week. We spoke specifically about the George Floyd case. He said it was horrible, the Justice Department was looking into it, that he expected authorities to bring swift justice,” host of the "Buck Sexton Show" told Howard Kurtz on “Media Buzz.”
Sexton said that President Trump’s comments during his show were “exactly what I would want a commander in chief to say.”
“There isn’t a whole lot of debate or discussion about how horrible what happened in Minnesota was.”
Dozens of cities across the United States were picking up the pieces on Sunday after a grim night of violent riots that left at least three dead, dozens injured, hundreds arrested and buildings and businesses in charred ruins as protests over the death of a black Minneapolis man in police custody continued for a fifth day.
Mayors of major cities imposed curfews, governors in nearly a dozen states deployed the National Guard in a desperate bid to stem the mayhem, chaos and wreckage. Though the incident that touched off the rioting occurred Monday in Minnesota and led to a cop being swiftly charged with murder, the damage seemed to culminate Saturday night and spanned from coast to coast.
In New York City, the NYPD said at least 345 people were arrested and at least 47 police vehicles damaged or destroyed during the incidents on Saturday. A total of 33 police officers were also injured. In Beverly Hills, Calif., shops along the storied Rodeo Drive were looted as a crowd estimated at more than 2,000 people chanted "Eat the rich!'

Sexton pushed back on the media and others whom he claimed were “fanning the flames.”
“If you’re looking for people who are fanning the flames, I saw protesters here on the street. I walked amongst them several times just because they’re all over the city. They’re screaming profanity at police officers, They’re calling them racist murderers. It’s appalling and then, on top of that, you add the destruction of property, the NYPD cars lit on fire, and the media always soft peddling this: ‘oh this is an expression of rage,’” Sexton said.
Sexton went on to say, “No, this is looting, this is arson, this is violence and it needs to be stopped.”
Fox News' Caitlin McFall and Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.

Big-city Dems who had imposed strict coronavirus lockdowns now let George Floyd rioters flout rules

Demonstrators standing off with police in downtown Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP)

The coronavirus lockdown is seemingly down and out, as many Democrats in charge of big cities -- including several who once insisted on strict quarantine measures -- line up to champion the nationwide mass demonstrations over the in-custody death of George Floyd, sans social distancing.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo lashed out at protesters calling to reopen the state earlier this month, saying at a news conference, "you have no right to jeopardize my health ... and my children's health and your children's health." Cuomo's directives have been enforced throughout the state: A New York City tanning salon owner told Fox News he was fined $1,000 for reopening briefly last week, calling the situation "insane" and saying he already was "broke."
On Friday, though, Cuomo said he "stands" with those defying stay-at-home orders: "Nobody is sanctioning the arson, and the thuggery and the burglaries, but the protesters and the anger and the fear and the frustration? Yes. Yes, and the demand is for justice."
In April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the Jewish community that "the time for warnings has passed" after he said a funeral gathering had violated social distancing guidelines. On Sunday, the mayor asserted, "We have always honored non-violent protests."
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, meanwhile, had warned that in-person worship services would be a "public-health disaster," disregarding constituents' concerns that he was violating their First Amendment rights. Now, his administration has been distributing masks to rioters, even though public gatherings of 10 or more are still ostensibly banned. Frey also allowed a police station to burn, saying it was necessary to protect police and rioters.
"The city encourages everyone to exercise caution to stay safe while participating in demonstrations, including wearing masks and physical distancing as much as possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19," a news release read. "The city has made hundreds of masks available to protesters this week."
The mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser, vowed $5,000 fines or 90 days in jail for anyone violating stay-at-home orders. This weekend, though, Bowser defended the protests: "We are grieving hundreds of years of institutional racism. ... People are tired, sad, angry and desperate for change." An angry mob of rioters in the city turned its rage on a Fox News crew early Saturday, chasing and pummeling the journalists outside the White House in a harrowing scene captured on video.
And, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti threatened in March to cut power and water for businesses that reopened, saying he wanted to punish "irresponsible and selfish" behavior. In recent days, he has encouraged mass gatherings, even as he condemned violence. "I will always protect Angelenos' right to make their voices heard — and we can lead the movement against racism without fear of violence or vandalism," he said.
These officials were just some of the most prominent politicans to have adopted strikingly different rhetoric on mass gatherings over Floyd's death, including several protests that have triggered property damage, injuries, beatings, and several deaths. The mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has been one of the few politicians to keep up her coronavirus admonitions. "If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week," she told CNN on Sunday. "There is still a pandemic in America that’s killing black and brown people at higher numbers."
Although some Democrats, including Garcetti, have since welcomed the support of the National Guard to quell the demonstrations, they explicitly noted they were doing so to combat "destruction" and "vandalism" -- not widespread defiance of stay-at-home orders.
Four officers have been fired in the Floyd case, and one has been arrested and charged. A video showed the arrested officer kneeling on Floyd for several minutes as he screamed that he could not breathe, although an initial medical examiner's report found "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation" -- and cited Floyd's "underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease," as well as the "potential intoxicants" in his system.
"Democratic elected officials have now all-but destroyed any remaining political deference in terms of policies needed to enforce social distancing, limit crowd size and the like," journalist Michael Tracey said.
He also suggested the protests obfuscated key data, pointing to statistics from The Washington Post showing that a total of 41 unarmed people were shot and killed by U.S. police in 2019 -- 19 of them white, nine black and nine Hispanic. Others noted that the "Grim Reaper" who patrolled Florida's beaches to shame swimmers and sunbathers amid the pandemic was nowhere to be seen at the protests.
"WE LITERALLY STAYED IN OUR HOUSES FOR A MONTH BECAUSE OF FEAR OF A VIRUS WITH A 99.74% SURVIVAL RATE AND NOW ARE SUPPOSED TO IGNORE NATIONAL COP-KILLING RIOTS?!!" Kentucky State political science professor Wilfred Reilly tweeted. "SERIOUS question, as re these riots - where are all these Governors that gave daily three hour press conferences about whether you could walk down the beach or visit your dying relatives? Is the COVID-19 crisis over?"
There have been other indicators that officials' concerns about the coronavirus were overblown. Warnings from Democrats that the recent Wisconsin election would lead to a spike in coronavirus cases, for example, proved unfounded. ("I don’t think that the in-person election led to a major effect, to my surprise. I expected it,” infectious diseases expert Oguzhan Alagoz said.)
Reilly added: "The way you create a narrative is to isolate and publicize every incident of the phenomenon you're focused on. Black: white/inter-racial violent crime is 5% of crime (600K cases/12M crimes), and 80% of THAT is Black on white. Wouldn't think that from the papers, wouldja?"
Scattered efforts by the Democrats to condemn some of the protesters have relied on inaccurate information and unfounded assertions that contradict available data and video evidence. For instance, former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared to blame the Russians for the protests on Sunday, saying the violence was right out of their "playbook" and that they're "probably" involved.
Rice also falsely claimed that Trump had called white supremacists "very fine people," which has been repeatedly debunked. Like Rice, Trump specifically made a distinction between peaceful political protesters and white supremacists, whom Trump said he condemned "totally." ("Very fine people" were protesting the censorship and removal of a Civil War statue, Trump said.)
And, Frey said Saturday that officials thought "white supremacists" and "out-of-state instigators" could be behind the protests in the wake of Floyd's death, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also claimed most of the protesters arrested were from outside Minneapolis and sought to take advantage of the chaos.
"We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out of state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and our region," Frey had tweeted Saturday.
However, a report by KARE 11 showed "about 86 percent" of the 36 arrests listed their address in Minnesota, and that they live in Minneapolis or the metro area, according to data the outlet analyzed from the Hennepin County Jail's roster. Five out-of-state cases came from Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter later admitted he was wrong when he falsely claimed that "every person" arrested in Minneapolis protests was from out of state. Frey has not issued a similar retraction, and multiple calls by Fox News to his office seeking comment were met with a busy signal. An emailed message was not immediately returned.
On Sunday, White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien disputed reports that far-right and white supremacist groups were involved in stoking the violence.
"I haven't seen reports of far-right groups," O'Brien said in an interview Sunday morning on CNN's "State of the Union." "This is being driven by Antifa." Later Sunday, Trump announced he would designate Antifa a terrorist organization.
"The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization," Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon.
"It’s ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don’t lay the blame on others!" Trump had tweeted Saturday.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was less decisive in stating who was behind the looting, arson, and violence that has taken place. While he called rioters "Antifa-like" during an appearance on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," he said, "I think it still remains to be seen exactly how" the situation devolved from peaceful protests to something entirely different.
Fox News' Caitlin McFall, Andrew O'Reilly, Tyler Olson and Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo contributed to this report.

Secret Service agents wounded outside White House, car bombs feared; official says Trump was taken to bunker

A senior official in the direct chain of command for defending Washington D.C. told Fox News that more than 50 Secret Service officers have been injured Sunday night so far, and that some rioters are throwing bottles and Molotov cocktails.
As observed in New York City and elsewhere, groups in D.C. are planting cars filled with incendiary materials for future use, Fox News is told.
U.S. Marshals and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents have been deployed to the streets of D.C. in an extraordinary move to beef up security alongside local police and Homeland Security agents, including the Secret Service, the Justice Department confirmed late Sunday. Fox News has learned U.S. Attorney for D.C. Mike Sherwin is heavily involved in the operation.
Lights that normally illuminate the exterior of the White House were disabled early Monday morning, reportedly so that the Secret Service could use night-vision equipment to monitor protesters.
Additionally, the entire Washington, D.C. National Guard is being called in to help with the response to protests outside the White House and elsewhere in the nation’s capital, according to two Defense Department officials. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday that she had requested 500 DC Guardsman to assist local law enforcement. Later on Sunday, as the protests escalated, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy ordered the rest of the Guardsman — roughly 1,200 soldiers — to report.
As authorities clashed with demonstrators for the third straight night, the parish house connected to the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church across the street from the White House was set on fire late Sunday. The parish house contains offices and parlors for gatherings. The basement, which was also torched, is used for childcare during church services, and had recently undergone renovations.

Police stand near a overturned vehicle and a fire as demonstrators protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The church says every president beginning with James Madison, “until the present,” has attended a service at the church, giving it the nickname, “the church of presidents.” The first services at the church were held in 1816, according to its website.
Before the blaze, church officials had said they were thankful that the previous day of protests hadn't significantly damaged the structure.
"We are fortunate that the damage to the buildings is limited," Rev. Rob Fisher, the rector of the church, said in a statement earlier Sunday, several hours before the fire was set.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) building was also set ablaze near the White House. The AFL-CIO is the nation's largest pro-union group.
An hour before the 11 p.m. ET curfew in D.C., police fired a major barrage of tear gas stun grenades into the crowd of more than 1,000 people, largely clearing Lafayette Park across the street from the White House and scattering protesters into the street.

Demonstrators protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Police stage in Lafayette Park as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protesters piled up road signs and plastic barriers and lit a raging fire in the middle of H Street. Some pulled an American flag from a nearby building and threw it into the blaze. Others added branches pulled from trees. A cinder block structure, on the north side of the park, that had bathrooms and a maintenance office, was engulfed in flames.
Several miles north, a separate protest broke out in Northwest D.C., near the Maryland border. The Metropolitan Police Department says there were break-ins at a Target and a shopping center that houses Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue Men’s Store, T.J. Maxx, a movie theater and specialty stores. Police say several individuals have been detained.

Police form a line on H Street as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Separately on Sunday, Twitter suspended the account of Antifa, the left-wing group that Trump branded a terrorist organization earlier in the day. The suspension came after Antifa urged members to go into "white hoods" and "take what's ours." Twitter and President Trump have sparred in recent days over censorship.
The developments came as it emerged that the Secret Service took President Trump to the White House's underground bunker on Friday night, when protests outside the complex intensified.
A senior administration official confirmed the information to Fox News after The New York Times first reported the story.
“Wasn’t long. But he went," the official said Sunday.
The White House declined to comment.
“The White House does not comment on security protocols and decisions,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said.
Trump's precise position Sunday night was not immediately clear. Trump traveled to Florida on Saturday to view the first manned space launch from the U.S. in nearly a decade. He returned to a White House under virtual siege, with protesters — some violent — gathered just a few hundred yards away through much of the night.

Demonstrators start a fire as they protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Demonstrators protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The D.C. demonstration Sunday was one of several around the country responding to the death of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody.
Four officers have been fired in the Floyd case, and one has been arrested and charged. A video showed the arrested officer kneeling on Floyd for several minutes as he screamed that he could not breathe, although an initial medical examiner's report found "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation" -- and cited Floyd's "underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease," as well as the "potential intoxicants" in his system.
The scale of the coast-to-coast protests rivaled the historic demonstrations of the civil rights and Vietnam War eras.
In Birmingham, Alabama, footage appeared to show demonstrators violently attacking journalists on Sunday.
Iowa Law School professor Andy Grewal tweeted: "Friend in Chicago called 911. Phone rang 10 times. He explained that the building across the street was being broken into and looted and the dispatcher then hung up on him."
In Minnesota, a semitrailer sped toward a crowd of protesters, in a scene caught on harrowing video. Police announced the unidentified driver was arrested and taken to Hennepin Healthcare with non-life threatening injuries after the protesters dragged him from his truck and apparently attacked him. Remarkably, DPS officials said it appeared none of the protesters was seriously injured.
Protesters in Philadelphia hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, officials said, while masked crowds broke into upscale stores in a San Francisco suburb, fleeing with bags of merchandise.
In Austin, Texas, video showed protesters appearing to cheer as a homeless man's belongings were set on fire.
Looting was rampant in California, even in the well-to-do Bay Area suburb of Walnut Creek. In one bizarre episode caught on tape, looters there appeared to loot other looters.
In Brooklyn, two attorneys, including a New York University School of Law graduate, were charged with throwing a Molotov cocktail at an NYPD cruiser. Colinford Mattis, 32, worked at the Times Square law firm Pryor Cashman, but his profile was removed from the firm's website after the news broke.
In Denver, police fired tear gas and projectiles at demonstrators defying a curfew following a day of peaceful marching and chants of “Don’t shoot” alongside boarded-up businesses that had been vandalized the night before.
Dozens of demonstrators, some throwing fireworks, taunted police and pushed dumpsters onto Colfax Avenue, a major artery, in the sporadic confrontations that occurred east of downtown. 83 had been arrested in the area on Saturday night.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock called the behavior of unruly protesters “reckless, inexcusable and unacceptable.”
Curfews were imposed in major cities around the U.S., including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. About 5,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen were activated in 15 states and Washington, D.C.
At least 4,100 people have been arrested over days of protests, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press. Arrests ranged from looting and blocking highways to breaking curfew.
The scene on Sunday was similar to the episode outside the White House two days earlier. Around the time Trump headed to the safety Friday night, multiple agents were being "assaulted with bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks and other items" -- injuring a number of uniformed division officers and special agents, according to the Secret Service.
The extent of the injuries was unclear. No one reportedly made it over the White House fence, but the agency determined that the situation warranted immediate action.
Trump has said he had “watched every move” from inside the executive mansion during Friday's protest and “couldn't have felt more safe” as the Secret Service let the protesters carry on, “but whenever someone ... got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on then, hard — didn't know what hit them.”
On Saturday morning, Trump praised the Secret Service for its protection of the White House the previous night, calling them “very cool & very professional” -- and warned that any protesters who breached the fence would have met by "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons."

Demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

"The President doesn’t make the call to move to the bunker," Dan Bongino, a former lead Secret Service agent in the presidential protective detail and a Fox News contributor, wrote on Sunday. "The trained professionals of the Secret Service do."
While unusual, it isn't unprecedented for protectees to be taken to the underground bunker when there are aerial intrusions or other threats to the White House. Top White House officials, including then-Vice President Dick Cheney, were whisked to the bunker after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The mob outside the White House had also turned its rage on a Fox News crew early Saturday, chasing and pummeling the journalists in a harrowing scene captured on video.

Police in riot gear stand in front of the White House as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Veteran reporter Leland Vittert was covering protests in Lafayette Park just before1 a.m. with three crewmembers when as many as a dozen masked protesters surrounded them, in footage caught by the Daily Caller.
After a protester lunged at Vittert while he was reporting on-air, the team made a beeline out of the park, with the hostile and growing crowd in pursuit.
Vittert and the crew were punched and hit with projectiles as they fled, and a Fox News camera was broken when a member of the mob tried to grab it.
Police fired pepper spray at demonstrators near the White House and the D.C. National Guard was called in this weekend, as the scene outside the White House seemed fraught again on Sunday night.
The Secret Service tweeted late Sunday: "In an effort to ensure public safety, pedestrians and motorists are encouraged to avoid streets and parks near the White House complex."
Hundreds of people converged on the White House and marched along the National Mall, chanting “Black Lives Matter,” “I can't breathe” and “No justice, no peace.”
Protesters threw water bottles, traffic cones, scooters, even tear gas cans at police lines. They set fire to a car and a trash bin and smashed windows, including at Bay Atlantic University. “What are you doing? That's a school,” one man yelled.
An American flag hanging at the Export-Import Bank was taken down, burned and replaced with a Black Lives Matter banner.

Law enforcement officers from Calvert County Maryland Sheriff's Office standing on the Ellipse, area just south of the White House in Washington, as they watch demonstrators protest the death of George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics being used by law enforcement to disperse protesters Saturday night. He commended National Guard troops deployed in Minneapolis, declaring “No games!” and he also said police in New York City “must be allowed to do their job!”
“Let New York’s Finest be New York’s Finest,” Trump said on Twitter after returning to the White House from Florida, where he watched the launch of a SpaceX rocket. He did not talk to reporters upon his return and it was not clear if he could hear the protest over the sound of his helicopter. But for at least part of the flight, televisions on Air Force One were turned to Fox News and its coverage of the protests.
Earlier in the day, he had belittled the protesters and pledged to “stop mob violence.”
“I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace, and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace,” the president said after watching the launch of a SpaceX rocket. “Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the missions at hand.”
Police were in tactical gear. The D.C. National Guard was activated at the direction of the secretary of the Army and at the request of the Park Police to help maintain order near the White House, Commanding Gen. William J. Walker said in a post on the Guard's Facebook page.

A firework explodes by a police line as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

While some protesters stayed near the White House, others marched through the streets chanting, “No justice and no peace.” and “Say his name: George Floyd.” The mood was angry and several speakers implored marchers to remain peaceful.
The march paused between the Washington Monument and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Demonstrators sat down in the street for a moment of silence lasting for the eight minutes or more that the Minneapolis police officer reportedly knelt on Floyd's neck.

Police in riot gear stand in front of the White House as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

At the Lincoln Memorial, one organizer spoke over a megaphone. “Look to the left and to the right and thank that person. We can't hug anybody because of COVID, but I love you anyway.” Many of the protesters wore masks, but did not socially distance themselves.
Another group circled through the Capitol Hill neighborhood for at least an hour in cars, honking. A helicopter hovered overhead.
In a series of tweets earlier Saturday, Trump doubted protesters' allegiance to Floyd’s memory, saying they were “professionally managed.”
Trump later rejected the suggestion that he was stoking a potential conflict between protesters and his supporters. “I was just asking. But I have no idea if they are going to be here," he said. “MAGA is Make America Great Again. By the way, they love African American people. They love black people.”
At Saturday's demonstration, there was no evidence of a counter-move by Trump supporters.

Demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The president also criticized the mayors of Washington and Minneapolis.
Trump said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey “is probably a very good person, but he’s a radical, left mayor.” He then described how he watched as a police station in the city was overrun. “For that police station to be abandoned and taken over, I’ve never seen anything so horrible and stupid in my life," Trump said when speaking briefly to reporters at the White House.
He said Minnesota officials have to get tougher with rioters, and that by doing so they would be honoring the memory of Floyd.
 

Demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Secret Service said in a statement Saturday that six protesters were arrested in Washington and “multiple” officers were injured. There were no details on the charges or nature of the injuries. A spokesman for U.S. Park Police said their officers made no arrests, but several suffered minor injuries and one was taken to a hospital after being struck in the helmet by a projectile.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Saturday called the protesters “criminals” who committed “acts of violence while hiding behind their First Amendment right of lawful protest.”
Late Saturday and early Sunday, protesters vented their rage by breaking into tony shops of Georgetown, on the western edge of the District, and in downtown Washington, breaking windows and glass doors of many stores and looting some of them.
In his tweeting, Trump claimed that many Secret Service agents were “just waiting for action” and ready to unleash “the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen." His reference to “vicious dogs” potentially being sicced on protesters revisits images from the civil rights movement when marchers faced snarling police dogs and high-pressure fire hoses.

May 2020 Townhall Cartoons

China, Iran mock US amid ongoing riots: 'I can't breathe'

China fired back at the United States' concerns with Hong Kong's freedom by pointing directly at the racial unrest that has exploded in America, simply tweeting, "I can't breathe".

Tweets from Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesperson, came as the U.S. struggles with nationwide riots that have erupted in response to George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.
Her "I can't breathe" attack touched a nerve as both Floyd and Eric Garner -- both unarmed black men -- uttered that expression moments before they died, while facing what many believe was excessive force by police.
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortegus had castigated China for the way it treated Hong Kong protesters. "Freedom-loving people around the world must stand with the rule of law and hold to account the Chinese Communist Party, which has flagrantly broken its promises to the people of Hong Kong," Ortagus said.
That tweet was just the latest in an apparent strategy of China accusing the U.S. government of hypocrisy as it faced criticism for the way it countered pro-Democracy protests in Hong Kong. Most recently, President Trump has announced that he would block Hong Kong's trading privileges after China's ceremonial parliament voted to bypass the semi-autonomous territory in enacting national security legislation.
In another tweet, Hua posted a segment from RT, which is funded by the Russian government, blasting the U.S. for supporting violent protests in Hong Kong while denouncing rioters as "thugs."

Iran similarly attacked the U.S., tweeting an altered press release in which the State Department attacked Iran amid ongoing protests in 2018.
"Some don't think #BlackLivesMatter," Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said. "To those of us who do: it is long overdue for the entire world to wage war against racism. Time for a #WorldAgainstRacism."
Hua also suggested the U.S. employed similar regulations and likened Hong Kong to China's "hand."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo set the stage for Trump’s announcement by notifying Congress on Wednesday that Hong Kong no longer has the high degree of autonomy that it is guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” framework.
Trump said Friday that his administration would begin eliminating the “full range” of agreements that had given Hong Kong a relationship with the U.S. that mainland China lacked, including exemptions from controls on certain exports.
“China has replaced its promised formula of one country, two systems, with one country, one system,” he said, echoing statements by pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.

A Hong Kong government statement accused Trump and his administration of smearing and demonizing the government’s duty to safeguard national security and called allegations that the security law would undermine individual freedoms “simply fallacious.”
“President Trump’s claim that Hong Kong now operated under ‘one country, one system’ was completely false and ignored the facts on the ground,” the statement said.
Separately, Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng told reporters that it was “completely false and wrong” to say the territory was losing its autonomy.