President Donald Trump showed the "contradiction and inconsistency" of his response to the protests that have gone on for several days following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis through his appearance at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday.
She also told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that her daughter Alexandra, a filmmaker and journalist, was at Lafayette Park, when the use of force was used to remove people before Trump's appearance.
“She said, 'Mom, you wouldn't even believe it. These people were demonstrating peacefully. And all of a sudden, this barrage of security came through using clubs to beat people and these explosive scat little bullets that explode into stuff that burns your eyes,’” Pelosi said. "Maybe they didn't have tear gas, I don't know, but they had the elements of it for peaceful demonstrators to make way for the president to walk through. What is this? A banana republic?"
Pelosi added that she is "very proud" of Washington, D.C. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who slammed the president's visit, with wife Melania, to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.
"He was just flabbergasted at the thought that a religious institution would allow itself to be used as was the shrine to St. Paul yesterday," said Pelosi. "We have to act upon our values and what happened the other night was an exploitation of the good feelings of the American people who associate themselves with the bible and the church."
Pelosi added that it's "heartwarming" to see so many people turning out to protest peacefully, and to turn out "where they have hope their presence can make a difference and their voices will be heard," and she feels there is "opportunity for change."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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