Republicans chastise Trump for ousting protesters, church photo-op

The gentle criticism highlights growing concern in the GOP about the president's inflammatory response to the unrest across the country.

Sen. Ben Sasse said he is "against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop." | Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images

Senate Republicans offered rare criticism of President Donald Trump on Tuesday after protesters outside the White House were cleared out with tear gas the day before so the president could pose for photos in front of a historic church.

"It was painful to watch peaceful protesters be subjected to tear gas in order for the president to go across the street to a church that I believe he’s attended only once," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). "I thought that the president came across as unsympathetic and as insensitive to the rights of people to peaceful protest."

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There is a fundamental — a constitutional — right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop,” added Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who also decried rioting and looting. “Every public servant in America should be lowering the temperature.”

Democrats ripped Trump’s theatrics as cowardly and dangerous.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered a resolutionTuesday stating that “Congress condemns the President of the United States for ordering federal officers to use gas and rubber bullets against the Americans who were peaceably protesting in Lafayette Square in Washington, DC on the night of June 1, 2020.”

And Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said it was “definitely not” right for peaceful protesters, who were gathered around Lafayette Park in front of the White House, to be sprayed with tear gas. And he criticized the president for walking to St. John’s Episcopal Church right before the 7 p.m. curfew, because “everyone knew there were going to be protesters in that area.”

“Doing what I thought was a really good speech — then that visual, that photo-op distracted from the message he had just given in the Rose Garden,” said Lankford, who led a student minister group before coming to Congress. “I just thought, this visual and this message don’t line up.”

The gentle criticism highlights growing concern among Republicans about the president’s inflammatory response to the nationwide protests over George Floyd’s killing by a Minnesota police officer — all with the backdrop of a global pandemic and the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator, was even more direct, saying at a POLITICO event that “if your question is: Should you use tear gas to clear a path so the president can go have a photo-op? The answer is no.”

During his Rose Garden address Monday, Trump declared himself the “president of law and order” and threatened to end the protests by sending in the military — a move supported by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Shortly thereafter, Trump walked to the church and posed with a bible.