OnPolitics: An altercation at a park sets the tone

Friday, June 5

A cadre of law enforcement including Park Police, Metro Police Department and D.C. National Guard gather in Lafayette Square to face protesters yelling "no justice, no peace," "say his name," and "hands up, don't shoot" in Washington, D.C. on June 1, 2020.

Monday's protests in D.C., and Trump's photo op in the middle, set the stage for a tumultuous week in Washington.

The week in politics was dominated by the discussion, reaction and fallout to roughly an hour of news on Monday.

As protests demanding justice in the death of George Floyd continued across the country, the nation's capital was no exception. Shortly before President Donald Trump was set to speak in the Rose Garden Monday evening, protestors at near Lafayette Square were dispersed by police using smoke canisters and other chemical irritants. (Was it tear gas? USA TODAY's John Fritze and Savannah Behrmann addressed that question.)

Why the apparent sudden escalation? Attorney General Bill Barr gave the order to clear the park after realizing a security perimeter previously planned had not yet been built. Barr was informed Trump was planning to visit the historic St. John's Church, just north of the park, which had been damaged the night before.

So shortly after he declared himself a president of "law and order," Trump strolled from the White House to St. John's Church and posed for pictures, holding a Bible. He did not give remarks or enter the facility.

The reaction to the entire sequence of events was swift.

D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser called the use of force against the protestors "shameful." The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington was even more forceful.

"Let me be clear: The president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our churches stand for," Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde told CNN.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden spoke out against the action, saying, "This president today is part of the problem and accelerates it." Trump's own Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, on Wednesday said he opposes using the U.S. military to tamp down on the unrest in the nation, something Trump proposed in his speech Monday.

And on Thursday, Trump's former Defense Secretary, Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis, unleashed on his former boss in a statement: "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people - does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us," he wrote.

On Thursday, USA TODAY's John Fritze and David Jackson reported, "Even for a president who has long courted chaos, it's been a tumultuous week."

Stay safe out there, and we'll see you next week. -- Annah Aschbrenner

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