WASHINGTON, June 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Pres Donald Trump has said again that he has done more for the US black community than any president with “the possible exception of another Republican President, the late, great, Abraham Lincoln”.
Trump took a swipe at Joe Biden, the Democrat presidential hopeful for the 2020 election, saying he had done more for the black population than his presidential rival had “in 43 years”.
Biden has criticised Trump for using the crisis to appeal to his supporters, saying he was “serving the passions of his base”.
Trump also took aim at the “killers, terrorists, arsonists, anarchists, thugs, hoodlums, looters, ANTIFA & others” who he believes are behind violent protests.
Former President George W. Bush called on the US to take a hard look at its “tragic failures,” citing racial injustice in America in a statement addressing protests which have roiled the country over the past week.
“It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country,” Bush said in the statement expressing anguish over the death of George Floyd, suffocated beneath the knee of a white policeman in Minneapolis on May 25.
The killing has unleashed a nationwide wave of civil unrest unlike any seen in the US since the 1968 assassination of rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
“This tragedy – in a long series of similar tragedies – raises a long-overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society?” Bush, who was president from 2001-2009, wrote.
“It is time for America to examine our tragic failures,” he stated.
Most of the protests which have swelled in cities across the country since Floyd’s death have been peaceful, but some have degenerated in to violent riots.
White House incumbent Donald Trump, who has rejected the president’s traditional role as a force for unity during moments of national crisis, on Monday threatened a military crackdown to end the demonstrations. — NNN-AGENCIES
