Trump claims protesters in Washington risked facing ‘vicious dogs’

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump claims that many Secret Service agents were “just waiting for action” and ready to unleash “the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen” if protesters angered by his response to George Floyd’s death had crossed the White House’s security fence.

In a series of tweets hours after hundreds of demonstrators had massed outside the White House and scraped with officers in riot gear, Trump belittles them, doubts their allegiance to Floyd’s memory, says they were only out “to cause trouble” and were “professionally managed.” He offers no evidence to back his assertions, and the president even seems to invite supporters to make their presence felt: “Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???”

Trump says he had “watched every move” from inside the executive mansion and “couldn’t have felt more safe” as the Secret Service let the protesters carry on, “but whenever someone … got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on then, hard — didn’t know what hit them.” The president also directs social media criticism at the mayors of Washington and Minneapolis.

Floyd is the black man who was being held in handcuffs when he died Monday in Minneapolis after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air. Protests have erupted in US cities in the days since.

— AP