Bill Barr asserted Sunday that no ‘chemical irritants’ were used in clearing Lafayette Park of protesters for Donald Trump’s church photo-op.
The Attorney General made the claim, even though pepper spray – which he later clarified were actually pepper balls – were deployed to disperse peaceful protesters on Monday standing between and White House and St. John Episcopal Church.
‘No, there were not chemical irritants,’ Barr asserted in an interview on CBS News’ Face the Nation Sunday morning. ‘Pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. It’s not chemical.’
Pepper balls are a way to disseminate the same irritant used in pepper spray, but in the form of essentially a paintball – they are filled with a resin, either in powder or liquid form, that is derived from peppers.
While Barr said he did feel the move to use the pepper balls to clear the park was appropriate, he did not know it was going to be used for the president to participate in a stunt at the church across the street from the White House.
Law enforcement, Secret Service and National Guard were used to monitor protests surrounding the White House after riots broke out following the death of Floyd, a black man who was killed while being arrested by a white police officer in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
The incident sparked nationwide outrage that led to unrest, riots and protests – including instances of arson, looting and confrontations between black people and police officers.
‘Do you believe there is systemic racism in law enforcement?’ CBS’ Margaret Brennan asked Barr.
‘I think there’s racism in the United States still but I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist,’ he responded. ‘I understand the distrust, however, of the African-American community given the history in this country.’
Attorney General Bill Barr asserted Sunday morning that the ‘pepper balls’ used to disperse protesters from Lafayette Park on Monday were not ‘chemical irritants’ and claimed that law enforcement is not ‘systematically racist’
Pepper balls – a derivative of pepper spray but in paintball form – were used to disperse a crowd ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to a park across from the White House
‘I think we have to recognize that for most of our history, our institutions were explicitly racist. Since the 1960s, I think we’ve been in a phase of reforming our institutions and making sure that they’re in sync with our laws and aren’t fighting a rearguard action to impose inequities,’ he continued.
Barr was seen speaking to law enforcement officials in Lafayette Park shortly before Trump made the trek across Pennsylvania Avenue for a five-minute trip to the church that was boarded up after it had been set on fire during George Floyd riots last Sunday night.
During the trip, Trump held up a bible and called members of his cabinet to stand next to him in front of St. John’s for photographers situated in front of him.
‘As I understand it, the Park Police and the Secret Service, they were the ones who carried out the movement of the crowd back one block. And I think they used their standard crowd control protocols,’ Barr explained.
Barr also discounted a report that claimed Trump wanted to deploy 10,000 active duty troops on the streets of Washington, D.C. to quell protesters earlier this week.
A senior defense official told NBC News on Saturday that President Trump requested the large number of soldiers during a ‘contentious’ Oval Office meeting with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday.
The anonymous official told the news network that Esper instead tried to steer Trump away ‘from a buildup of federal forces’ by pushing for governors from several states to send their National Guard members to the nation’s capital.
‘A senior administration official told our CBS’ David Martin, that in a meeting at the White House on Monday morning, the president demanded that 10,000 active duty troops be ordered into American streets. Is that accurate?’ Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan asked Barr.
‘No, that’s completely false,’ he shot back. ‘That’s completely false.’
‘The president did not demand that?’ she reiterated her question.
‘No, he did not demand that,’ the U.S. Attorney General, who was in the highly-reported Monday meeting, asserted.
That same day of the meeting, Trump appeared for a press conference in the White House Rose Garden where he threatened to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act – which allows the President of the United States to deploy U.S. military within its own borders to suppress civil disorder and rebellion.
The White House reportedly wanted to deploy 10,000 active duty soldiers onto the streets of Washington, D.C. to quell George Floyd protesters earlier this week. Members of the National Guard were sent from various states instead
Esper did eventually airlift 1,600 active duty troops to bases in the D.C. region ‘to respond if needed’. However, but that time 5,000 National Guard members already were already in the city and did not require any assistance. National Guardsmen are seen at the Lincoln Memorial on Tuesday
Thousands of people have been packing into D.C. streets over the past two weeks calling for police reform and end to systemic racism following the death of George Floyd
In the days prior, some peaceful protests calling for police reform and an end to system racism had turned violent in the nation’s capital with instances of looting, arson and destruction.
Esper did eventually airlift 1,600 active duty troops to bases in the D.C. region ‘to respond if needed’.
However, by that time 5,000 National Guard troops already were already in the city and did not require any assistance.
On Thursday, hundreds of combat soldiers with the 82nd Airborne were ordered to leave the D.C. region after only a few days there. Instances of violence and looting had dropped dramatically, and Trump had been widely rebuked for threats to deploy the military.
According to another anonymous official, the nation’s top military officer, General Mark Milley, got into a ‘shouting match’ with Trump after the president spoke of his wish to end the country’s protests by bringing in active military forces.
The official told The New Yorker that Gen. Milley is said to have stayed firm, responding: ‘I’m not doing that. That’s for law enforcement.’
It’s unclear whether that incident took place in the same White House meeting on Monday where Trump told Esper that he wanted 10,000 troops.
According to another anonymous official, the nation’s top military officer, General Mark Milley, got into a ‘shouting match’ with Trump after the president spoke of his wish to end the country’s protests by bringing in active military forces
On Thursday, Milley publicly rebuked Trump over his proposal to use deploy US armed forces to their own streets, by sending a letter to top military leaders that said the military will continue to protect Americans’ right to ‘freedom of speech and peaceful assembly
On Thursday, Milley publicly rebuked Trump over his proposal to deploy US armed forces in the country’s own streets, sending a letter to top military leaders that said the military will continue to protect Americans’ right to ‘freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.
‘As members of the Joint Force – comprised of all races, colors, and creeds – you embody the ideals of our Constitution,’ Milley wrote.
‘Please remind all of your troops and leaders that we will uphold the values of our nation, and operate consistent with national laws and out own high standards of conduct at all times,’ he further stated.
‘We all committed our lives to the idea that is America,’ Milley hand-wrote in as an addition to the bottom of the letter.
‘We will stay true to that and the American people.’
A National Guard soldier keeps watch at the Lincoln Memorial as thousands of peaceful demonstrators were met with a huge military presence Wednesday following a week of tenses clashes in the capital
Meanwhile, former defense secretary James Mattis also hit out at Trump by publishing scalding op-ed denouncing the president’s leadership in the face of widespread protests across the country.
In a piece published on Wednesday, Mattis spoke out for the first time publicly since he was fired by Trump in 2018, blasting the commander-in-chief for threatening to deploy the military.
‘We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate’, he wrote.
‘At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict -a false conflict -between the military and civilian society.
‘It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them,’ Mattis wrote.
Demonstrators protest Thursday near the White House over the death of George Floyd
Demonstrators hold signs as they walk down Capitol Hill during a protest on Saturday