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Without mentioning the president by name, Bush suggested it was
out of step with the country's values to have driven protesters
from Lafayette Square across from the White House on Monday just
before Trump walked through for a photo opportunity.
"The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to
the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving,” Bush said
in a statement. “Those who set out to silence those voices do
not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a
better place.”
Trump later issued a Twitter post lauding authorities for using
"overwhelming force" and "domination" in Washington. The
Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the order to remove the
protesters came from Attorney General William Barr.
With demonstrations, sometimes marred by violence, erupting
across the country since Floyd died on a Minneapolis street on
May 25 with a police officer's knee on his neck, Bush said he
and his wife, Laura, were anguished by "the brutal suffocation."
The latest incident of an unarmed black man dying at the hands
of a white police officer raises troubling questions that need
to be confronted, he said.
“It is time for America to examine our tragic failures – and as
we do, we will also see some of our redeeming strengths,” said
the 43rd U.S. president, who served from 2001 to 2009.
“It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans,
especially young African American men, are harassed and
threatened in their own country,” he said.
“This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a
long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our
society?”
(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Peter
Cooney)
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