Former President Donald Trump raised the idea of shooting protesters who took over the streets around the White House after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper claims in his new book as quoted by Axios.
Esper describes the moment he calls surreal, that happened in the first week of June 2020 inside the Oval Office, in front of the Resolute desk, in the book called “A Sacred Oath,” which allegedly contains first-person, vivid revelations by Esper, adding to the outsiders’ accounts of extreme dysfunction in Trump’s White House.
He says in the book that this idea weighed heavily in the air while the former president was complaining loudly about the protests underway in Washington, DC, and red-faced asked if they can “just shoot them… in the legs or something”.
Esper says he had a difficult time figuring out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess but has eventually enraged the then-president by publicly opposing his idea of quelling protests against racial injustice by invoking the Insurrection Act which permits the president to use active-duty troops on American soil.
Trump fired Esper after the 2020 election after he definitely lost his favor after clashing with him over a number of issues and distancing himself from the clearing of Lafayette Square protesters for a photo op at St. John’s church.
Accounts similar to Esper’s were previously reported by CNN, including those documented by journalist Michael Bender’s book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost.”
Bender’s book revealed last year new details about the Oval Office meetings during which Trump repeatedly called for law enforcement to shoot protesters. He was allegedly toning down his request only after being pushed back by then-Attorney General Bill Barr and by Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
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