Yahoo Sports As Protests Erupt Nationwide, Trump Lauds Secret Service for Coming Down 'Hard' on White House Rioters
President Donald Trump credited his Secret Service for using violence to keep him safe inside the White House while protesters gathered outside in outrage over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was pinned down and killed at the hands of a white police officer.
On Saturday morning, Trump, 73, shared a series of tweets praising the Secret Service for coming down "hard" on protesters who stood outside the White House the night before.
"Great job last night at the White House by the U.S @SecretService. They were not only totally professional, but very cool. I was inside, watched every move, and couldn't have felt more safe," Trump wrote.
Trump went on to laud his agents for letting "'protesters' scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone got too frisky or out of line," his agents would "quickly come down on them, hard - didn't know what hit them."
....got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard - didn’t know what hit them. The front line was replaced with fresh agents, like magic. Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020
Trump warned that if any protesters tried to breach the fence, they would be met with "the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen."
"That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least. Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action," he added.
In a follow-up tweet, Trump called out the "professionally managed so-called 'protesters'" for having "little to do with the memory of George Floyd."
"They were just there to cause trouble," he claimed.
The professionally managed so-called “protesters” at the White House had little to do with the memory of George Floyd. They were just there to cause trouble. The @SecretService handled them easily. Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020
Trump again seemed to promote violence and destruction on Friday night by retweeting a clip of the CNN headquarters in Atlanta being destroyed by rioters.
"In an ironic twist of fate, CNN HQ is being attacked by the very riots they promoted as noble & just. Oops," his caption read.
The president's inflaming messages come just two days after Twitter flagged one of his earlier tweets as violating its policy on the "glorification of violence."
On Thursday night, Trump called some of the more violent protesters "thugs" who were "dishonoring the memory of George Floyd" and he threatened intervention — seeming to suggest that the military would shoot looters.
NICHOLAS KAMM/Getty Images Protesters in front of White House
"I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City," he tweeted, adding that the Minneapolis mayor needed to "bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right."
"Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way," Trump wrote. "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
According to The Washington Post, the late Walter Headley, a controversial former Miami police chief, was quoted as saying the "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" line in 1967, which the president has now re-utilized.
RELATED: White House Briefly Goes on Lockdown as Protests Mount in D.C.
Rather than removing the president's tweet altogether, Twitter explained that "it may be in the public's interest" for his statement to "remain accessible" but hidden from public view unless someone opts to see it.
"We've taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts, but have kept the Tweet on Twitter because it is important that the public still be able to see the Tweet given its relevance to ongoing matters of public importance," the company wrote in a thread about the decision.
Protests began on Tuesday in Minneapolis, and have spread across the country to cities including Los Angeles, San Jose, Atlanta, Denver, and Washington, D.C.
ERIC BARADAT/Getty Images D.C. protest
CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins tweeted Friday that groups of protesters were gathering in front of the White House chanting the words "I can't breathe" — echoing Floyd's desperate pleas heard in video footage of a Minneapolis police officer pinning the truck driver to the ground with a knee on the unarmed man's neck.
Derek Chauvin, the officer in the video, was fired from the department on Tuesday. Then on Friday, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter by Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.
The three other officers who were present at the time of Floyd's death are still under investigation, Freeman said during a press conference on Friday. He anticipates that they, too, will soon be facing charges.
