Month: June 2021

An Interior Department watchdog said Wednesday that U.S. park police (“USPP”) cleared Black Lives Matter protesters from Lafayette Park near the White House last June to erect fencing around the area, not to make way for former President Donald Trump’s walk to St. John’s church. The department’s inspector general said the commander in charge of clearing out the crowd didn’t know of Trump’s plans to walk through the park to the church before plans were already in motion to disperse protesters, and the USPP said that they sought to clear the area in order to erect anti-scale fencing around the park in response to violence and vandalism experienced during previous days’ protests.

The inspector general’s office said: “We found that the USPP had the authority and discretion to clear Lafayette Park and the surrounding areas on June 1. The evidence we obtained did not support a finding that the USPP cleared the park to allow the president to survey the damage and walk to St. John’s Church. Instead, the evidence we reviewed showed that the USPP cleared the park to allow the contractor to safely install the antiscale fencing in response to destruction of property and injury to officers occurring on May 30 and 31. Further, the evidence showed that the USPP did not know about the President’s potential movement until mid- to late afternoon on June 1 — hours after it had begun developing its operational plan and the fencing contractor had arrived in the park.”

Trump, in a statement on his website, thanked the inspector general for “completely and totally exonerating me in the clearing of Lafayette Park.” He added: “As we have said all along, and it was backed up in today’s highly detailed and professionally written report, our fine Park Police made the decision to clear the park to allow a contractor to safely install anti-scale fencing to protect from Antifa rioters, radical BLM protestors, and other violent demonstrators who are causing chaos and death to our cities. In this instance, they tried burning down the church the day before the clearing. Fortunately, we were there to stop the fire from spreading beyond the basement — and it was our great honor and privilege to do so. Again, thank you to the Inspector General!”

President Biden has ended negotiations with Senator Shelley Moore Capito and Republicans over infrastructure legislation. According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, Biden told Capito on Tuesday that the latest GOP offer didn’t “meet the essential needs of our country” to fix roads and bridges, prepare the nation for a future reliant on clean energy and create jobs. Psaki said that Mr. Biden has talked with several House and Senate lawmakers over the past two days, and he appreciated Capito’s efforts and “good faith conversations,” but he was disappointed that after he had reduced his plan by over $1 trillion, Republicans had “increased their proposed new investments by only $150 billion.”

The president will now turn his attention to a bipartisan group of senators preparing their own infrastructure proposal. Psaki said he has spoken with Senators Sinema, Cassidy, and Manchin, and he plans to stay in touch with the lawmakers while he’s in Europe. A bipartisan team led by Republican Senator Mitt Romney, of Utah, had been working on an alternative to the offer by Capito’s group as a backup in case its talks with the White House foundered.

In a statement on Tuesday, Capito said that she was “disappointed by his decision” to end negotiations, adding, “Throughout our negotiations, we engaged respectfully, fully, and very candidly — delivering several serious counteroffers that each represented the largest infrastructure investment Republicans have put forth. Despite the progress we made in our negotiations, the president continued to respond with offers that included tax increases as his pay for, instead of several practical options that would have not been harmful to individuals, families, and small businesses.”