When Donald Trump wanted to take advantage of a photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, a place of worship for numerous presidents until rioters burned the building down in protest of the murder of another unarmed black man, he had police in riot gear shoot tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the way of what, at the time, was a peaceful protest.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi put on her mask and walked with the crowds.
Nancy Pelosi walking through the protests without needing the police to gas protesters pic.twitter.com/wKwb3RwEDf
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) June 3, 2020
Pelosi had spoken out against Trump’s unconstitutional actions against American citizens protected by the First Amendment in their right to peacefully assemble earlier in the day. On MSNBC, Pelosi called Trump’s leadership “inconsistent” and a “contradiction.”
Pelosi later tweeted about the protests, sympathizing with the pain and grief that sparked them and calling for real reform from Congress on the issue of police brutality. She also laid out her plan to have the people most qualified to speak on the issue in charge of the conversations.
Pelosi was not the first high profile politician to join in with protesters, offering support and encouragement. Former Vice President and current apparent Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential elections Joe Biden also spoke with protesters, seeking to understand and reach out.
As Trump hides in a bunker under the White House and rages at his enemies on Twitter
Joe Biden visits a Black Lives Matter protest site in Delaware and kneels with a man and his son – Business Insider https://t.co/Ofbveplmec
— Bren Buras-Elsen (@brenisphere) June 1, 2020
Donald Trump, meanwhile, has handled the worst civil unrest since the 1960s, the worst global pandemic since 1919, and the worst unemployment rate since the 1929 Great Depression by hiding in his bunker, signing executive orders to punish Twitter, tear gassing a priest, threatening to have everyone shot, and retweeting a Cowboys for Trump speaker saying “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”
Twitter had a lot of thoughts on Speaker Pelosi’s tweet. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube