Ever since President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr pulled their massive, cruel stunt in Lafayette Square — when they gassed hundreds of peaceful protesters in the streets to make a path for Donald Trump to cross the street to a church he didn’t even have permission to be at and hold a Bible up for a photo op because everyone was making fun of him for hiding in the White House bunker — Barr has been doing his dead-level best to take the heat off himself and the Trump administration.
But now it looks as though one National Guard commander who was on the scene during the disgusting debacle to clear Lafayette Square is gearing up to dump cold water all over Barr’s personal recount of the events.
Major Adam DeMarco made a statement that was posted to the House Natural Resources Committee website today, asserting that “demonstrators were behaving peacefully” before authorities deployed “excessive use of force” against the protesters in Lafayette Square.
Bill Barr has publicly and on the record maintained that the 7 p.m. curfew for protesters that was already in place in Washington D.C. was not moved to allow the president to more safely conduct his photo op in front of St. John’s Church.
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However, DeMarco begs to differ.
The National Guard commander asserts that Park Police declared a warning to protesters gathered in the Square at 6:20 p.m., advising that the Square would be would soon be cleared. But DeMarco says that the declaration was made 50 yards away from the protesters, where no one could hear.
“[T]he announcements were barely audible and I saw no indication that the demonstrators were cognizant of the warnings to disperse,” DeMarco explained.
DeMarco alleges that it was only 10 minutes or so after the announcement that he started to feel the effects of “tear gas,” something he’s familiar with thanks to his Army training. He also claims to have found empty “tear gas” dispensers in the streets.
Park Police have maintained that they did not deploy tear gas against protesters.
DeMarco says that by 7:05 p.m. that evening, he could see Donald Trump entering Lafayette Square, where he held the now-infamous Bible photo shoot.
“Having served in a combat zone, and understanding how to assess threat environments, at no time did I feel threatened by the protesters or assess them to be violent,” the National Guardsman’s statement ends. “From my observation, those demonstrators – our fellow American citizens — were engaged in the peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights. Yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.”
Just last month, Barr clung tight to his assertion that Trump’s photoshoot had “no correlation” to the decision to reschedule the curfew that night.
We can only hope that more people present that night have the courage of DeMarco. So we can shatter these lies once and for all and expose this government for what it truly is.
Featured image via screen capture
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