‘Can’t you just shoot them?’: Former US official spills the beans on Trump’s handling of protests : Rashtra News
#shoot #official #spills #beans #Trumps #handling #protests
Former US Defence Secretary Mark Esper, in book excerpts released Monday, has said that Ex-US President Donald Trump had asked protesters to be shot at.
According to Esper: “The president sat in the Oval Office red-faced and complaining loudly about the protests underway in Washington over the police killing of a Black man.” “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” Trump is quoted as saying in Esper’s memoir, reported Axios news website.
ALSO READ: Teen who recorded George Floyd’s arrest, death wins Pulitzer nod
The protests Esper talks about were related to the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police personnel. Participants in the nationwide demonstrations even clashed with security forces.
The preview of Esper’s account appeared to corroborate previous reports of Trump arguing that the military should be brought in to intervene to stem rising civil unrest.
Journalist Michael Bender, in his book, previously quoted sources saying that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, had even engaged in an argument with Trump against using the military to quell protests even as the President demanded a stronger response.
ALSO READ: Rallies, moments of silence honor George Floyd a year later
Similar to Esper’s account, Bender, too, had quoted Trump as saying: “Shoot them in the leg —or maybe the foot… but be hard on them!”
During the protests in 2020, the US Park Police and National Guard troops used tear gas and flashbangs to clear protesters demonstrating outside the White House.
At that time Esper had opposed invoking the Insurrection Act, a rarely-used 200-year-old law that permitted the military to be actively deployed within the country. Soon after this, he was sacked as his stance had earned him Trump’s ire.
Esper’s book has been vetted by the Pentagon and reviewed by generals and cabinet members. It will be released on May 10.
WATCH: Cop who killed George Floyd gets 22.5 years in prison
Esper, in the book, reportedly describes a “surreal atmosphere in Trump’s inner circle, with the idea of troops opening fire on Americans weighing heavily in the air”.
“I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid,” he wrote in the memoir called ‘A Sacred Oath’.
Latest Sports News | Latest Business News | Latest World News
( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a www.indiatoday.in feed.)
Related searches :