AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s move to quit WHO cites flawed facts OF COURSE

Hope Yen, Associated Press Updated 10:08 am PDT, Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Photo: Alex Brandon, AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump spread a number of false and misleading claims about the World Health Organization in announcing his decision to cut U.S. ties with the agency over the coronavirus epidemic.

Trump last week said he would halt funding and a decades-long U.S. relationship with WHO, accusing it of being effectively controlled by China and misleading the world about the virus. The president referenced his May 18 letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that laid out specific allegations and demanded changes.


An AP Fact Check finds numerous inaccuracies in that letter.


Trump accuses WHO of ignoring scientific reports in December of the virus spreading in China that didn’t exist and assails the group for criticism of a U.S. travel ban on China that it never lodged. He also overstates the level of knowledge about human transmission of the virus at the time.



Trump’s escalating actions, which have drawn heated responses from China, come as his administration faces criticism for a botched U.S. response to the outbreak, including testing delays. The death toll for Americans has surpassed 100,000, the most in the world.


A look at some of his claims and reality:

US WITHDRAWAL

TRUMP: “Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds.” — remarks Friday.

THE FACTS: It’s unclear whether the president can unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from WHO without approval from Congress.


Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said in tweets Friday that Trump’s move is “unlawful” because ending funding requires Congress, which has already authorized the money. He called it “dangerous” because “we’re in the middle of a pandemic."

"Trump has no power to do it," Gostin wrote.

Congressional Democrats said in April, when the president first proposed withholding money from WHO, that it would be illegal without approval from Congress and that they would challenge it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday called the move “an act of extraordinary senselessness.”


The U.S. helped found WHO in 1948. It provides the group about $450 million a year, according to Trump.

___

VIRUS RESPONSE

TRUMP: “The World Health Organization consistently ignored credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet medical journal. The World Health Organization failed to independently investigate credible reports that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts, even those that came from sources within Wuhan itself.” — May 18 letter.

THE FACTS: No such study existed in December, according to the Lancet.

The Lancet said the first papers it published on the coronavirus came from Chinese and Hong Kong researchers on Jan. 24. There was no report in December “referring to a virus or outbreak in Wuhan or anywhere else in China,” the journal said.

The outbreak was detected by Wuhan doctors only in late December. Gao Fu, the head of China’s Centers for Disease Control, found out about it on Dec. 30, 2019, after notices issued by Wuhan health officials leaked online.

WHO was alerted to a “cluster of atypical pneumonia” via media reports and its own surveillance system on Dec. 31, and it requested information from China on Jan. 1.

“In the first weeks of January WHO was very, very clear; we alerted the world on Jan. 5th,” Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, told reporters on April 15. “Systems around the world, including in the U.S., began to activate their emergency management systems on January 6th.”

Retrospective studies, published in the Lancet and elsewhere, have shown that the first known patients fell ill with the virus at the beginning of December or even earlier, but those cases were not detected until much later. Health experts say it is extremely difficult to detect a new pathogen, especially during the winter flu season, and that Chinese doctors identified the new coronavirus quickly by global standards. There is no evidence that top Chinese officials or WHO were aware of the virus before Dec. 30.

WHO last month agreed to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the virus.

___

HUMAN TRANSMISSION

TRUMP: “By (Dec. 31), Taiwanese authorities had communicated information to the World Health Organization indicating human-to-human transmission of a new virus. Yet the World Health Organization chose not to share any of this critical information with the rest of the world, probably for political reasons.” — May 18 letter.

THE FACTS: He’s overstating the level of knowledge about human transmission of the virus at the time.

Officials in Taiwan did send an email on Dec. 31 to WHO that requested more information about the outbreak in Wuhan, but it does not mention “human-to-human transmission.” The email said "at least seven atypical pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, China” and noted that patients had been isolated for treatment.

The Taiwan CDC argues that public health professionals could discern from its wording about patients being isolated that there was a real possibility of human-to-human transmission of the disease, but acknowledges it did not “directly and conclusively” state that.

WHO says it never received information at the time specifically referencing human transmission.

___

TRUMP: “On January 14, 2020, the World Health Organization gratuitously reaffirmed China’s now-debunked claim that the coronavirus could not be transmitted between humans, stating: ‘Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) identified in Wuhan, China.’ This assertion was in direct conflict with censored reports from Wuhan.” — May 18 letter.

THE FACTS: He isn’t providing the full context.
It’s true that a WHO tweet cited “no clear evidence” of human-to-human transmission. But the organization also didn’t rule out the possibility. At a news briefing that same day, Maria Van Kerkhove, acting head of WHO’s emerging diseases unit, allowed that there could be limited cases of human transmission.

“From the information that we have it is possible that there is limited human-to-human transmission, potentially among families, but it is very clear right now that we have no sustained human-to-human transmission,” she said. “It is still early days, we don’t have a clear clinical picture.”

___

CHINA-FRIENDLY?

TRUMP, referring to China’s Xi Jinping: “On January 28, 2020, after meeting with President Xi in Beijing, you praised the Chinese government for its ‘transparency’ with respect to the coronavirus, announcing that China had set a ‘new standard for outbreak control’ and ‘bought the world time.’ You did not mention that China had, by then, silenced or punished several doctors for speaking out about the virus and restricted Chinese institutions from publishing information about it.” — May 18 letter.

THE FACTS: Tedros did repeatedly praise China’s transparency and pandemic response even as evidence mounted that it had failed to notify the public about a looming crisis. But Trump early on did also.

In a CNBC interview on Jan. 22, Trump was asked if he trusted information from China about the coronavirus. “I do,” Trump said. “I have a great relationship with President Xi.”

Two days later, he was even more effusive. “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus,” he tweeted. “The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. ...I want to thank President Xi!”

Trump kept up the compliments when asked several times in February about whether data from China can be trusted. He called Xi “extremely capable” and said he’s “doing a very good job with a very, very tough situation.”

His praise ultimately faded as the pandemic hit hard in the U.S. and the federal response stumbled.

It’s unclear how much impact WHO would have had if it did press China for more transparency, given the United Nations agency’s inability to punish member countries. WHO is constrained by rules that rely on the goodwill of its 194 members and relies on Beijing’s cooperation to mount a global response to the pandemic.

___

TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS

TRUMP: “They strongly recommended against me doing the early ban from China, but I did it anyway and was proven to be 100% correct.” — remarks Friday.

TRUMP: “You also strongly praised China’s strict domestic travel restrictions, but were inexplicably against my closing of the United States border, or the ban, with respect to people coming from China. I put the ban in place regardless of your wishes.” — May 18 letter.

THE FACTS: He’s exaggerating the magnitude of his travel restrictions on China and overstating WHO’s position. WHO has cautioned against such restrictions as a general matter, saying they often prove ineffective in stemming the spread of an infectious disease, but it never publicly questioned or singled out Trump’s decision.

Trump in fact didn’t “ban” all the people infected with coronavirus from entering the U.S. from China.

His order in late January temporarily barred entry by foreign nationals who had traveled in China within the previous 14 days, with exceptions for the immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents as well as American citizens.

There were many gaps in containment and initial delays in testing, leading to the U.S. rising to No. 1 globally in the number of people infected by COVID-19 and the number of deaths last week surpassing 100,000.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.

___

Find AP Fact Checks at http://apnews.com/APFactCheck

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck

TRUMP TWOFER 

Catholic Archbishop of Washington slams Trump's visit to John Paul II shrine

Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Pulliam Bailey, The Washington Post  Tuesday, June 2, 2020

WHO IS THAT WOMAN?

Photo: Patrick Semansky, AP
IMAGE 1 OF 14
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit Saint John Paul II National Shrine, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in Washington.

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump visited a D.C. shrine honoring Pope John Paul II on Tuesday, a day after his appearance in front of an Episcopal church across from the White House set off a controversy because it involved aggressively clearing peaceful protesters.

In a statement Tuesday morning as the president was arriving, Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory slammed the visit and the tactics Trumped had used for the photo opportunity at St. John's Episcopal Church.


"I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree," Gregory said.


The large shrine was opened as a museum to John Paul in 2001, but nose-dived financially and was bailed out in 2011 by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's religious organization that has lobbied for conservative political causes, such as opposing same-sex marriage.

In his statement, Gregory noted the legacy of Pope John Paul II, suggesting he would not have condoned Trump's actions either.

"Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings. His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth," Gregory said. "He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace."

Gregory, who was installed as the first black archbishop of Washington in 2019, previously issued a statement on the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. The death was the trigger for the protests that have unfolded outside the White House and across the nation for much of the last week.

"The horror of George Floyd's death, like all acts of racism, hurts all of us in the Body of Christ since we are each made in the image and likeness of God, and deserve the dignity that comes with that existence," Gregory said last week.

According to White House guidance, the president and first lady Melania Trump were scheduled to depart late in the morning for the four-mile trip to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Northeast Washington, which is adjacent to the Catholic University of America and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Melania Trump identifies as Roman Catholic.

The visit is part of an effort by Trump to focus on international religious freedom. Upon returning to the White House early in the afternoon, he is scheduled to sign an executive order on that subject in the Oval Office.

John Paul's movement for religious freedom, including in his native Eastern Europe from communism, is considered one of his key legacies. Tuesday is the 41st anniversary of his first papal visit to Poland.

The shrine, according to its website, "is a place of pilgrimage housing two first-class relics of St. John Paul II. Here, through liturgy and prayer, art, and cultural and religious formation, visitors can enter into its patron's deep love for God and for man."

Messages to the Knights of Columbus were not immediately returned Tuesday morning. Trump's attorney, Pat Cipollone, was a top lawyer with the organization, holding the title "supreme advocate."

On Monday evening, federal authorities used flash-bang shells, gas and rubber bullets to clear peaceful protesters from around the White House ahead of Trump's walk across Lafayette Square to St. John's Episcopal Church, where he posed for photos while holding up a Bible. The church's rector and the region's Episcopal bishop were outraged that the crowds were forcefully removed to allow for the visit.

"I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop," the Right Rev. Mariann Budde told The Post.

She excoriated the president for standing in front of the church - its windows boarded up with plywood - while holding a Bible aloft.

"Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence," Budde said of the president. "We need moral leadership, and he's done everything to divide us."

On Tuesday, several pastors stood on the steps of the historic church calling for end to police brutality.

White House officials told The Washington Post, on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, that the president spent much of Monday discussing with his team how to show that the streets of Washington were under control.

A former Trump campaign aide, Jason Miller, told The Post on Monday that Trump's walk to the church made sense for a president who was elected in part on law-and-order themes.

"He's not the hand-holder or consoler in chief," Miller said. "He was elected to take bold, dramatic action and that's what he did."

On Tuesday, Stephen Schneck, former head of Catholic outreach for then-President Barack Obama and current executive director of the Franciscan Action Network, said he was "disgusted that the Knights would allow the Shrine to St. John Paul II to be used for what is transparently a Trump reelection campaign event."

"Pope St. John Paul II was an ardent foe of racism. In his last visit to the United States the saint begged our nation to eradicate racism from its heart. One cannot imagine a worse insult to John Paul II's memory than to hold a Trump re-election event at the saint's shrine," he told The Post in a statement.

Pax Christi USA, a left-leaning Catholic group, was planning a vigil near the shrine "to express our dismay at this visit and to pray for our country and our church."

It was unclear early Tuesday what Trump's new executive order on religious freedom might include.




Trump has signed several orders around the issue of religious freedom that have been primarily symbolic but have the potential for changing how federal departments enforce existing law, said Charles Haynes, senior fellow for religious freedom at the Freedom Forum.

Early in his administration, Trump promised to abolish the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits clergy from endorsing politicians from the pulpit. But it would take an act of Congress to change the amendment. Instead, Trump issued an executive order on how his administration would enforce the amendment. In another case, he signed a rule offering protections for health-care workers who declined services that violate their religious beliefs, a move that concerned LGBTQ advocacy groups.

"Most of it is symbolic," Haynes said of the executive orders. "It reiterates the law in some cases. There already are religious liberty protections, but he wants to underscore we're upholding them or we're implementing them."


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OAKLAND SF PROTESTS
Bay Area protest updates: Schaaf calls Oakland protest 'beautiful and powerful'

By Amy Graff, SFGATE Published 9:19 am PDT, Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf told KCBS Radio Tuesday morning a youth-led protest starting at Oakland Technical High School brought more than 15,000 people to the streets and was mostly peaceful.

Schaaf called the event condemning the killing of George Floyd a "powerful and beautiful demonstration around our wish for a most just world."


Later in the day, people who the mayor believes were not associated with the protest, engaged in unlawful activity, throwing bottles and rocks at law officers and looting stores. Officers declared an unlawful assembly order and then used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. Forty arrests were made.


Police: About 40 Arrested, Tear Gas Used At Protest Monday

Bay City News Service Published 11:19 pm PDT, Monday, June 1, 2020

Photo: Noah Berger/Associated Press
A man runs from police officers in Oakland, Calif., Monday, June 1, 2020.

OAKLAND (BCN)

Oakland police arrested about 40 people at the latest demonstration Monday following last week's death of an unarmed black man under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

A large youth-led protest and march with thousands of people had started earlier Monday at Oakland Technical High School at 4351 Broadway and ended in the downtown area. The action was a week after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on Memorial Day.



Then what Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson described as a second group of people separate from the youth-led march began throwing rocks and bottles at officers in the area of Broadway and Eighth Street.

Watson said officers declared an unlawful assembly order and then used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. The group moved north to the area of Broadway and 14th Street, where officers surrounded the protesters and took them into custody, she said.

Along with the roughly 40 people arrested on suspicion of assaulting officers, Watson said many others received citations for not complying with the unlawful assembly order.



Many people on social media Monday night criticized the use of tear gas by officers following a peaceful demonstration that started with the high school students.
"I'm so proud of the youth & today's peaceful protest in Oakland was huge testament to that," one person wrote on Twitter. "It just makes me sick that after the protest the police decided to tear gas & and arrest teenagers."

Watson said police late Monday night "are patrolling throughout the city of Oakland for safety to our citizens and preventing additional looting and destruction of our valued, vulnerable businesses."

Copyright © 2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

Here's everything to know about Bay Area protests

Thousands have gathered around California in recent days to protest the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

You may have questions about what's unfolding, and we have answers for you below.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

Amy Graff and Katie Dowd

June 1, 2020Updated: June 2, 2020 8:36 a.m.

Why are people protesting?

Demonstrators are protesting the death of George Floyd, 46, who was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, 44.
Floyd was detained May 25 because he matched the description of someone who tried to pay with a counterfeit bill at a convenience store. Horrifying video footage showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for eight minutes — Floyd was handcuffed on the ground — as he pleaded that he couldn't breathe.
After massive public outcry, Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
People are also taking to the streets to raise awareness about racism and the number of black men killed by police officers.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

Is this about more than George Floy

Yes, these protests are about both Floyd and the centuries of deep-rooted racism in the United States. Floyd's tragic death has amplified important dialogue about the over-policing of Black communities and inequality in America.
Here are some videos articulating these messages:
--In this video, Michael Render, the son of an Atlanta city police officer, speaks: Watch the video on YouTube.
--This video shared by reporter Fatima Syed shows two black men, ages 45 and 31, lamenting over how nothing has changed: Watch it on Twitter. 
-- Footage shared on the Twitter account @lukehighs shows a black woman explaining the situation.
--This video shows Liberian immigrant Patrick Smith giving CNN an interview during a Minneapolis protest on May 30: Watch it on the CNN Twitter account and on YouTube
--American philos0pher and activist Dr. Cornel West tells CNN anchor Anderson Cooper: "We are witnessing America as a failed social experiment": Watch it on Twitter.
In the photo above, demonstrators march in San Francisco on Sunday, May 31.

Juliet A. Williams/Associated Press

Which cities have held protests and what happened?

Protests have unfolded in big cities around the Bay Area, such as San Francisco and Oakland, and also in suburbs such as Walnut Creek and San Leandro. The demonstrations have generally been peaceful marches; a statement from the SF Police Department said events in the city on Sunday were "overwhelmingly orderly and peaceful."
A caravan of thousands of cars passed through downtown Oakland over the weekend in a demonstration that aimed to keep people safe during the coronavirus pandemic. 

San Francisco police reported 80 arrests Sunday for violating the dusk-to-dawn curfew and looting in the Market Street, SOMA and Union Square areas Sunday night. Police officers seized firearms and explosives, said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott.
In Oakland, 60 arrests were made for crimes ranging from shooting, vandalism, looting and illegal possession of firearms.
A woman was shot in the arm at a protest in Walnut Creek on Sunday; San Leandro police reported looting.
In the photo above, A woman stands on top of a car chanting as part of a protest in response to the death of George Floyd in San Francisco, Calif., on May 30, 2020.

Nhat V. Meyer/Associated Press

Are more protests planned?
Yes, here are a few of the bigger scheduled protests:
San Francisco
June 3 at 4 p.m.
George Floyd Solidarity Protest at Mission High
June 5 at 5:30 p.m.
George Floyd Solidarity Ride organized by Critical Mass. The group meets at Embarcadero Plaza.
Pictured: Protesters are detained for breaking curfew while protesting over the death of George Floyd at S. 9th St. and Elizabeth St. in downtown San Jose, Calif., on May 31, 2020.

Bay Area News Group/Jose Carlos Fajardo/Associated Press

Which Bay Area cities have curfews?

All curfews exclude first responders, essential workers, members of the media, people seeking medical care or individuals experiencing homelessness. Police caution, however, that all individuals out after curfew may be stopped and questioned. There is no statewide curfew, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is encouraging mayors to pass their own mandates, as needed.

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Associated Press

How does the coronavirus pandemic fit into all of this? Am I allowed to protest with shelter-in-place? 

Bay Area counties are encouraging protesters to wear masks and maintain social distancing as much as possible.

In a press conference Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged peaceful demonstrations and said protestors should get tested after attending events. He referred people to the state's website COVID19.CA.gov to find free testing sites.
In the photo above, a protester lowers her head to pray during a moment of silence after marching from Hayward City Hall to the Hayward Police Department in Hayward, Calif., May 31, 2020.

Nhat V. Meyer/Associated Press

How can I help?
A petition demanding justice for Floyd has over 12 million signatures and is the biggest Change.org petition of all time.
Several media outlets have created list of ways to help including the Courier, USA Today, Oprah Magazine and The Cut.
In the photo above, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, center, speaks to protesters as he takes a knee during a protest over the death of George Floyd outside of San Jose City Hall in downtown San Jose, Calif., on May 31, 2020.
Amy Graff is a digital editor and Katie Dowd is a senior digital editor at SFGATE

How the George Floyd case has affected Kamala Harris' chances for Biden VP

Klobuchar damaged by link to Chauvin case

By Mike Moffitt, SFGATE Published Monday, June 1, 2020

Photo: Washington Post Photo By Melina Mara
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., (left) speak quietly during a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. The two are currently hopefuls for the running mate spot with Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket.

Only three weeks ago, Kamala Harris was picked by Politico as the favorite to join presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on the November ticket.

Now, as fury mounts over the death of George Floyd, who was asphyxiated under the knee of a white police officer, the California senator’s law enforcement record has come under scrutiny and could be a liability, according to the publication.

Politico says right-wing trolls have joined progressives in pushing the “Kamala is a cop” narrative to discredit the former California attorney general and San Francisco prosecutor with liberal Americans. Progressives have long criticized Harris for claiming to be a reformer while actually supporting “tough on crime” policies.

The Daily Beast’s Molly Jong-Fast, writing in Vogue, says not to count Harris out.

“Picking an African American to be his running mate may no longer just be a political expediency or a canny campaign move by Joe Biden,” she wrote. “After the events of the past week, it may just be the right thing to do.”

What everyone seems to agree on is that the vice presidential candidacy of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, is in deep trouble.


While she was running for Senate in 2006, Klobuchar’s office was investigating Officer Derek Chauvin — the policeman caught on video pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck on May 25 — in a police-involved shooting. Klobuchar was already serving in the Senate when a successor sent the case to a grand jury, which declined to charge him and five other officers. The jury ruled the use of force against Wayne Reyes, who had stabbed two people before pointing a sawed-off shotgun at police, was justified.


RELATED: Who will be Joe Biden's running mate? The odds

Nonetheless, the linkage between Klobuchar and Chauvin has impacted her negatively.

The poor performance of the Midwest moderate among nonwhite voters during the presidential primary hasn’t helped either.

Like Harris, Florida Rep. Val Demmings’ stock as a potential Biden running mate may be rising despite her law enforcement background. Demmings, the former police chief of Orlando, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed last week:

"My fellow brothers and sisters in blue, what the hell are you doing?”, adding, "I cannot begin to understand how any officer could ignore the painful pleas we heard from Floyd — or from anyone suffering."


The Orlando Police Department has a long history of use-of-excessive-force complaints.

Other possible VP candidates include former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams, former national security adviser Susan Rice and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who earned praise from Biden’s campaign for denouncing unruly protests that broke out in her city Friday.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a favorite of progressives, has also been frequently mentioned as a possible Biden running mate.

HOW DARE THEY! 

ANARCHISTS DEFEND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

'Domestic terrorist actors’ could exploit Floyd protests, DHS memo warns

The memo cites “previous incidents of domestic terrorists exploiting First Amendment-protected events” as one reason for DHS’ concern of additional targeted violence.

Police advance on protesters gathered in downtown Washington, D.C. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

By BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN and NATASHA BERTRAND

06/01/2020

Anarchist and militia extremists could try to exploit the recent nationwide protests spurred by the death of George Floyd, the Department of Homeland Security warned in an intelligence note sent to law enforcement officials around the country.

Floyd, a black man who pleaded that he couldn't breathe while a police officer held him down and pressed his knee into his neck for nearly 9 minutes, was killed in Minnesota on May 25. The officer responsible has been charged with murder and manslaughter.

The memo, dated May 29 and marked unclassified/law enforcement sensitive, cites “previous incidents of domestic terrorists exploiting First Amendment-protected events” as one reason for DHS’ concern of additional targeted violence by “domestic terrorist actors.”

It also reveals, citing the FBI, that on May 27, two days after Floyd’s death, “a white supremacist extremist Telegram channel incited followers to engage in violence and start the ‘boogaloo ’— a term used by some violent extremists to refer to the start of a second Civil War — by shooting in a crowd.” One Telegram message encouraged potential shooters to “frame the crowd around you” for the violence, the document said.

THERE WERE NO ANARCHISTS THIS WAS A MAGA RALLY
And on May 29, “suspected anarchist extremists and militia extremists allegedly planned to storm and burn the Minnesota State Capitol,” the memo reads, citing FBI information.

The body of the memo says the plans about the state capitol were made in 2019, but a footnote describing the FBI’s information says twice that the plans were made in 2020. Spokespersons for DHS and the FBI did not respond to requests for clarification on the dates, but a source familiar with the report said 2019 was a typo, and the plans were made in 2020.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said he was unable to confirm or deny the report for security reasons. A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment. After publication, a DHS spokesperson flagged a tweet from DHS Secretary Chad Wolf. In the tweet, Wolf confirmed that DHS had reported that domestic terrorists were trying to exploit the protests.

News of the report comes as the Trump administration has touted its ambition to crack down on Antifa, a cohort of far-left activists who often destroy private property and use violent tactics.

President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr have blamed Antifa radicals for inciting violence at the protests, and Barr on Sunday said the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces would coordinate federal, state, and local efforts to find violent perpetrators.

“The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,” Barr said. Trump also tweeted that he would designate Antifa as a terrorist organization––a move he does not have the legal authority to make.

Despite the DHS intelligence note, administration officials have focused overwhelmingly on alleged left-wing violence. The note itself does not use the terms “left” or “right.” But it defines “militia extremists” as people who direct violence at the government because they believe it is taking away Americans’ freedoms and setting up a totalitarian regime. That definition also notes that militia extremists oppose laws regulating gun ownership and often form armed paramilitary groups. Those details are all hallmarks of far right extremism.

The document also defines “anarchist extremists” as people who use violence to change the government and society because they oppose capitalism and globalization, and believe government institutions are unnecessary and harmful––hallmarks of the far left.

The DHS intelligence note is at least the fifth the department has sent out to law enforcement officials in the last two months warning of the mobilization of domestic terrorists and violent extremists in the context of a national crisis.

TRUMPS MAGA FOLLOWERS
On April 23, as so-called Liberate protesters began demonstrating outside several states' capitol buildings demanding an end to the coronavirus lockdowns, DHS warned that the pandemic was “driving violent actors — both non-ideologically and ideologically motivated — to threaten violence” and “serving as the impetus for some domestic terrorist plots.”



In remarks to the Security Industry Association on Monday, DHS’ assistant director for Infrastructure Security, Brian Harrell, said the department had been “touched by this violence,” too. He cited the murder of a Federal Protective Service contract officer on Friday as he and his partner, who was wounded, monitored protests, as well as assaults on Secret Service officers that evening and over the weekend.

“As Americans, we should all support peaceful demonstrations and exercising our constitutional rights,” Harrell said. “However, violence, destruction, and bloodshed in the streets is never the answer. DHS, as the nation’s largest law enforcement organization, will continue to support our state and local police and first responder agencies, to bring a quick, safe, and peaceful ending to the disorderly violence in the streets.”

How Trump’s scattered team scrambled to respond to historic protests

Trump lurched between conciliatory and aggressive statements as he sought to make a mark amid America’s broadest racial justice protests in a half century.


President Donald Trump departs the White House to visit outside St. John's Church in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo


By GABBY ORR, NANCY COOK and DANIEL LIPPMAN
06/01/2020 

A barricade of police troops had already formed outside the White House by the time President Donald Trump returned Saturday evening, still giddy from his trip to Florida to watch the first manned commercial spacecraft launch into orbit.

Even before Trump was hurried into the executive complex by nervous aides and Secret Service personnel, the latest milestone in American space exploration had faded into the background — another casualty of a news cycle focused squarely on protests against police violence that devolved into chaos right outside the president’s front door. As the demonstrations continued into Sunday, followed by violence and looting in the late-night hours, Trump remained in retreat: out of the public eye and away from supporters who dismissed his calls for “law and order” as empty threats amid the backdrop of burning vehicles, graffitied storefronts and Washington’s historic St. John’s Church partly engulfed in flames.

The weekend brought the broadest race-focused protests to sweep America in a half century, and laid bare the Trump administration’s struggle to deliver a fitting response. Caught between placating his supporters, who grew agitated by the lack of a swift crackdown on looters, and the desire for soothing words from a nation in need of healing, Trump tried on multiple messages over the tumultuous 48-hour period — each time his words carrying the risk of exacerbating tensions further.

POLITICO DISPATCH: JUNE 2“I am mobilizing all federal resources, civilian and military to stop the rioting and looting.” A look at why President Trump skirted calls for unity amid national demonstrations over the death of George Floyd.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Subscribe on Spotify

In a Rose Garden address Monday, against the noise of flash bangs and tear gas unleashed on streets just outside the White House gates, Trump cast himself as a “president of law and order.”

“My first and highest duty as president is to defend our great country and the American people. I swore an oath to uphold the laws of our nation and that is exactly what I will do,” he declared.

It was a notable departure from his remarks in Cape Canaveral, Fla., over the weekend, as he condemned Floyd’s death as a “grave tragedy” and acknowledged the “horror, anger and grief” many Americans are feeling.

As the pivotal weekend unfolded — with the convergence of George Floyd’s death and ongoing coronavirus outbreak creating social upheaval unseen at this scale under the Trump administration until now — top White House aides were scattered across Washington and beyond, struggling to mount an appropriate response. This account is based on interviews with more than a dozen administration officials and Trump allies.

Some White House aides ventured into the office early Sunday morning for television appearances and meetings before protesters reemerged. Several administration officials trekked to the D.C. suburbs to celebrate incoming Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe at the home of conservative consultant Arthur Schwartz. Among the crowd of at least two dozen party-goers, who exchanged mixed opinions about events of the weekend over afternoon drinks and appetizers, was White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien; White House counsel Pat Cippollone; Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette; State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus; outgoing Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell; Andrew Giuliani, a White House public liaison official; and Kash Patel, a senior official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Four people familiar with the gathering said O’Brien did not appear to stay long, and arrived after participating in a series of Sunday show interviews from the White House. Spokespeople for the National Security Council and the Energy Department declined to comment.

In an email to POLITICO, Schwartz said of the gathering: “There was a secret meeting at my house to discuss the media-incited violent riots where Antifa looted American businesses across the country.”

One administration official in attendance said guests discussed the protests over Floyd’s death, among other topics. “There were conversations about everything. We talked about when baseball is going to come back and were trying to figure out ways to start the country again and deal with these municipalities that are getting out of control,” the official said.

Neither the president’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, nor his senior adviser Jared Kushner — whose effort to boost the president’s appeal with African Americans could be upended by Trump’s approach to the latest crisis — attended the suburban gathering. Meadows spent the weekend with family outside of Washington, and Kushner did not go into the West Wing on Saturday or Sunday. His wife, senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump, was spotted walking in Northwest Washington on Sunday.

White House staffers received an email on Sunday advising them not to come into the office if possible as the White House campus was under an “elevated security posture.” They were also told on Sunday and Monday to hide their government and White House complex badges until reaching the entrance of the White House. On Monday, aides also received an email saying that White House staffers could leave work at 4 p.m. A spokesman said the White House “does not comment on security protocols and decisions.”

Several of the president’s senior aides spent the weekend debating the merits of Trump delivering a formal address to the nation about the civil unrest — both the peaceful protests and the violent riots. Top staffers like Meadows wanted Trump to give a speech to emphasize his law-and-order credentials — a selling point for many of his base supporters — while Kushner and counselor to the president Hope Hicks urged restraint. The latter two aides worried that a speech in this environment could alienate key voters, including African Americans and suburban women, whom the Trump campaign has sought to make inroads with ahead of the 2020 election.

Others close to the White House said the format would end up backfiring on Trump, who looked uncomfortable and restless during his last Oval Office address about the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March, and encouraged him to take stronger action against rioters instead of offering another string of comments.

“He can’t moderate his tone or inflections,” one person close to the White House said before Trump’s Monday evening remarks. “He’s a terrible teleprompter reader. He’s imprecise. He’s a blunt instrument, so the idea that Trump is going to get on television and say anything that comforts people — it’s not going to happen.”

Some of the president's aides argued internally that the string of protests in major cities stemmed not just from anger over Floyd’s death, but from frustration over the coronavirus lockdowns and the upsetting state of the U.S. economy. The president should wait a few days before deciding on his next steps, these aides suggested.

But by Monday mid-morning, Trump’s political advisers and many within his political base were apoplectic that he had not yet delivered an address to assure Americans of their safety, or announced further actions to prevent daytime demonstrations from further descending into clashes between law enforcement and protesters.

Conservative news outlets and Trump loyalists were publicly trashing the president for staying silent on Sunday, apart from a tweet announcing his decision to designate anti-fascism protesters known as Antifa as a terrorist organization. Trump also went after the media in a pair of tweets Sunday evening and shared the all-caps message: “LAW & ORDER!”

It would be great if the President of the United States would stop rage tweeting in all caps and actually take decisive action as a leader instead of going MIA as our nation melts down,” Republican operative Caleb Hull said on Twitter. “I’ve heard nothing but disappointment from @realDonaldTrump’s biggest supporters.”

Trump‘s Monday evening speech came days after he was taken into a White House bunker at the outset of protests in Lafayette Park, prompting a mocking “Where’s Trump?” message to circulate over the weekend online.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, author of “In Trump We Trust,” questioned the reason for his lack of visibility after Saturday night’s violence. “Is it possible Trump has resigned and they just haven’t gotten around to the press release?” she wrote on Twitter Sunday evening.

One Republican close to the White House described violent riots as “a political goldmine” for Trump in the middle of an election year, “but only if the president takes advantage of the opening the left has given him.”

Trump allies, advisers and friends were reaching out to the president and his top aides directly over the weekend to pressure him to do something — if not a speech in the Oval Office then one in the Rose Garden or another White House setting. Some White House aides, frustrated by what they viewed as a weak response by the president, sought reinforcement from outside allies who talk with Trump regularly — hoping they could persuade him to take a sterner approach moving forward.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had swatted down the idea of an Oval Office address during an appearance on “Fox & Friends“ Monday morning, even as some of her colleagues continued to push for one internally.

“A national Oval Office address will not stop Antifa,” McEnany told the Fox hosts. “What is going to stop Antifa is action, and this president is committed to acting on it. He has several meetings pertaining to that today.”

McEnany’s comments echoed what Kushner privately told other White House aides and advisers as he urged a more restrained approach over the weekend.
But with Kushner and Meadows both absent from the White House on Sunday, the dearth of top staffers around Trump left top allies and advisers under the impression the president was making decisions alone over the weekend at a key juncture in his administration.


There was a growing recognition within the Trump orbit that the president needed to speak up more forcefully, and as part of that speech, he should acknowledge the tragedy of Floyd’s death while arguing that rogue actors could not run amok in cities. In his remarks on Monday evening, Trump did indeed touch on the tragedy of Floyd’s death.

Aides and advisers wanted Trump to try to parse out for Americans the difference between peaceful protesters and violent players, like Antifa, who the White House says is weaponizing the social unrest for their own interests. They wanted a focus on a base-pleasing message: the need for greater law and order.

“Working class Americans are aghast at these violent riots and are craving law and order, not anarchy,” said the Republican close to the White House. “A formal speech isn’t necessarily about ending the riots, it is about calming the waters and giving people who are fearful for their well being a sense of safety.”

When asked why Antifa keeps coming up in the administration’s messaging, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said officials “received information from state and local authorities and our U.S. Attorneys” on Antifa’s role, although she declined to go into details. The FBI has been interviewing some suspects who have been arrested in connection to violence over the last week.

Trump’s political advisers believed delivering a sterner televised address could be a political boost for the president amid the pandemic, cratering economy and mass protests. They saw it as an opportunity to reassure the nation, including key voting blocs of senior citizens and suburban women, that the country would be safe, while putting political pressure on Democratic mayors and state leaders to end the violent riots.

In a phone call with the nation’s governors Monday morning, Trump called participants “weak” and accused them of treating violent protesters with too much leniency.

“You’re making a mistake because you’re making yourselves look like fools,” he said. “Some have done a great job, but a lot of you — it’s not a great day for our country.”

The White House’s acting director of the domestic policy council said Monday in a POLITICO Playbook virtual event that the White House was busy formulating its plans for the weeks ahead, but did not specify what new policies Trump might enact.

“We are working through a list of solutions and possibilities — bipartisan. How do we come together? How do we use this as a unifying force for this country?” Rollins said.

Fringe groups point finger back at Trump, Democrats

Antifa, Boogaloo Bois and others on the far left and far right say politicians are wrong to blame them for the violence.

Police clash with protesters outside the White House. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

TRUMPS MILITARIZED PARK POLICE ATTACK NON VIOLENT PEACEFUL PROTESTERS

EXPRESSING THEIR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, THE AMENDMENT BEFORE TRUMPS FAVORITE SECOND AMENDMENT 

By BEN SCHRECKINGER

06/02/2020

Extremist movements on the left and right are pushing back at claims by President Donald Trump and others — including some Democrats — that their members are primarily to blame for the violent unrest convulsing the country in recent days.

In interviews with POLITICO, followers of both the far-left Antifa and the far-right Boogaloo Bois — diffuse, mostly white, movements without any clear hierarchy or central organization — pointed their fingers back at government officials and expressed their support for black protest leaders.

"This is really just one more attempt from the Trump administration to distract from real problems," said “David,” a spokesman for Rose City Antifa of Portland, Ore., who offered only a pseudonym in responding to statements from President Donald Trump and administration officials blaming the movement for the outbreak of violence

Patrick Fairbairn, an administrator of several Boogaloo Facebook groups, said most people affiliated with the movement were showing up at at sites of unrest to protect protesters, and he offered praise for Black Lives Matter.

"If they haven’t been heard and they need to be heard, they’ve got to do it their way," said Fairbairn, who identified himself as 23-year-old electrician. "The worst thing is to have this artificial separation between the people."

On Friday, another far-right group, Oath Keepers, which is affiliated with the militia movement, condemned Trump’s statement that “when looting starts, the shooting starts.”

“This is a disaster,” the group tweeted. “President Trump needs to retract that statement ASAP, stating that he misspoke & did not mean to say that National Guard should shoot people for stealing. Arson is a very different matter — that's lethal force because setting fires can kill.”

The comments go to the heart of one of the conundrums surrounding the riots that have raged in cities since the death of George Floyd: Are outside groups with anarchistic agendas using their large internet followings to fan the flames of violence? There is anecdotal evidence in cities that members of Antifa, the Boogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers and other groups are joining rallies alongside thousands of grass-roots protesters. The groups don’t deny that some of their members have been present at the riots – but representatives insist they’re there to support the grass-roots protesters and have no agendas other than calling attention to the police violence that led to Floyd’s death or protecting property and protesters.

President Donald Trump. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

STAGED A POLICE ASSAULT ON NON VIOLENT LEGALLY PROTESTING AMERICAN CITIZENS, FOR REAL TV EVENT OF HIM WALKING FROM THE ROSE GARDEN, TO ST. JOHNS CHURCH FOR A PHOTO OP OF HIM HOLDING A BIBLE UPSIDE DOWN!!!!!!

Politicians, meanwhile, have insisted that the groups are ramping up violence, even though they offer little conclusive evidence to support the claims. Trump has pointed the finger at left-wing Antifa, while Democratic officials in Minnesota, including Gov. Tim Walz, blamed out-of-town white supremacists.

Meanwhile, a new Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by POLITICO warns of Boogaloo followers advocating violent insurrection. “A white supremacist extremist Telegram channel incited followers to engage in violence and start the ‘boogaloo’ — a term used by some violent extremists to refer to the start of a second Civil War — by shooting in a crowd,” the memo stated. Citing information from the FBI, the memo also warns that “suspected anarchist extremists and militia extremists allegedly planned to storm and burn the Minnesota State Capitol” on Friday.

In Minneapolis, reports have emerged of clean-cut young white men, described by regular protest attendees as looking out of place, instigating some of the property destruction. Video showed one such young man, holding a black umbrella and systematically breaking the windows of an Autozone with a hammer as other protesters sought to question his motives.

On Saturday, Walz estimated that 80 percent of those arrested in Minneapolis on Friday were from out of state. John Harrington, commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety, said white supremacists were among those being detained. But KARE 11, the local NBC affiliate, found that in a sample of arrests recorded at a local jail, 86 percent of those arrested listed Minnesota addresses. Of those arrested from out of state, the outlet said it found only one person whose social media presence showed clear support for white supremacy.

Walz later backed off his claim. “The truth is, nobody really knows,” Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison said on Sunday about the composition of those committing violence.

Trump and Attorney General William Barr, meanwhile, have blamed unrest on Antifa, and Trump has threatened to designate the movement as a terrorist organization. Representatives of Antifa groups have dismissed those accusations. Of 17 people arrested in Washington on Saturday, most had ties to the region, according to information provided by police.

Part of the problem with making attributions is that the extremist groups are not centrally organized. “David” said he was unaware of Antifa members participating in violence: “I don't know of anybody in particular or specifically, and I probably wouldn’t comment if I did."

A Richmond-based Antifa group, known as Antifa Seven Hills, wrote in an email: “Antifascists aren’t coordinating or organizing these rebellions in the way that many on the Right think,” the group wrote. “But we do provide support, (largely in the forms of food/water, medical, legal) and hold defensive spaces for individuals to make autonomous choices. We certainly don’t get paid to incite any violence or fear.”

The Georgia-based group known as Atlanta Antifascists said in an email that it did not “have the capacity” to answer a question about whether members of Antifa groups had participated in recent violence. “We're a nonhierarchical group, so we can't speak for other groups,” it wrote, “and we don't even speak for our own members when they're not with our group.”

The same is true for The Boogaloo, a much newer movement that emerged from right-wing, anti-government online forums. Its name is an indirect reference to a second civil war, and it has gained momentum in recent months through armed protests of government coronavirus lockdown measures. Its imagery and anti-government sentiments have traveled widely online, but adherents are spread across countless social media and chat groups.

“There's not really direct communication at all, or really any real names,” said Matthew, a 23-year-old student active in Boogaloo groups, who asked that his last name be withheld.

Boogaloo adherents also have no single unifying ideology.

The movement has attracted a grab-bag of different anti-government activists, including some white nationalists. "There's kind of a complicated intersection for white supremacy and the Boogaloo groups," said Daniel Stevens of the Tech Transparency Project, which published an investigation of the movement in April.

But many of its members expressed solidarity with George Floyd, the black man whose death in Minneapolis at the hands of police officers, has sparked a week of protests and rioting. Many members of the Boogaloo compare Floyd to Duncan Lemp — a member of a far-right militia group who was fatally shot during a police raid at his home in Maryland in March — and who is now considered a martyr by the nascent movement.

One Facebook group associated with the Boogaloo, Sons of Liberty Information Network, is organizing a “protest against government oppression” later this month at the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock. The group’s image for the event features a photo of Floyd, and several posts on its page are supportive of the recent protests.

People affiliated with the movement also express varying degrees of seriousness about the idea of overthrowing the government. Stevens said that Boogaloo groups share documents about the use of weapons and combat tactics. But Matthew Kelley, a Massachusetts security guard who engages in online Boogaloo groups and describes himself as sympathetic to anti-government movements, said people who post seriously about civil war are called "smooth brains" — slang for morons — in many of the forums.

Another difficulty of dealing with extremist movements in the digital era is the speed at which they evolve.

Matthew, the 23-year-old Boogaloo follower from Missouri, said he attended a protest this week in the city of Columbia while carrying a sidearm. But he said that he had little interest in civil war, and that many of the Boogaloo groups were moving on to other goals. He said he was becoming more interested in exposing pedophiles.

"People are really starting to share different ideas about what they want for their own personal boogaloo," he said.