Trump snubs Dallas' top law enforcement officials, all black, for talk about policing and race in Dallas
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump heads to Dallas on Thursday for a discussion on race and policing that excludes the three top law enforcement officials in the county - a police chief, sheriff and district attorney who all are black.
The White House defended the snub, insisting the president will still hear a diversity of views before heading to a $10 million campaign dinner with two dozen donors who pony up at least $580,600 each for a meal and souvenir photo.
The exclusion from a roundtable on police-community relations brought a sort of resigned condemnation from Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot. Without himself or Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall or Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown, he said, "of course [Trump] would not be getting the full picture of advice from law enforcement. I don't know who he's going to get it from. I mean, we are the people on the ground."
The presidential visit comes amid heightened tensions nationwide since the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black suspect pinned by the neck for nearly nine minutes under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer now facing a murder charge.
Trump has demanded a military crackdown on protests nationwide, taunting Seattle's mayor ahead of the Dallas visit about a recent flare-up and warning that he'll send in troops if necessary.
On Thursday morning, Trump boasted again about his stroll to a church near the White House, where he brandished a Bible as cameras clicked, after National Guard and Park Police cleared protesters from Lafayette Square using pepper gas and rubber pellets.
But the nation's top military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, apologized Thursday for taking part in that photo opportunity, calling it a "mistake" that created "a perception of the military involved in domestic politics." The implicit rebuke of the commander in chief echoed Defense Secretary Mark Esper's rejection of Trump's call for putting federal troops on the streets of U.S. cities.
Air Force One is scheduled to land at Love Field at 2:30 p.m. The president has no public appearances planned. He will sit down with Fox News' Harris Faulkner for an interview during the visit.
"President Trump is more interested in photo-ops than offering a healing voice as our nation mourns," Trump's rival in November, former vice president Joe Biden, said in a statement ahead of the Texas trip.
Dallas County Democrats are organizing a protest near the president's fund-raising dinner at a Preston Hollow mansion.
Roughly two dozen guests will pay at least $580,600 per couple, with proceeds expected to hit $10 million spread between the Trump campaign, Republican National Committee and 22 state parties.
The White House has yet to release a guest list for the roundtable, hosted at Gateway Church's campus in North Dallas on Hillcrest Road near Forest Lane, one of the city's more affluent areas.
Gateway is a conservative evangelical megachurch, one of the nation's largest, with a half-dozen campuses in the area and a mostly white congregation.
The White House aide rejected the suggestion that it's a strange choice for a conversation on "disparities" and "underserved communities."
"There's a lot of diversity in the community," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the trip the official said. "Everyone cares about these communities. And this is about bringing people together from all walks."
Mayor Eric Johnson's office said that he was invited but had a scheduling conflict. Other black officials in the area were not invited, including three members of Congress who represent parts of Dallas: U.S. Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Colin Allred of Dallas, and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth. All are Democrats.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, both close Republican allies of the president, are expected to attend.
"You will have a lot of community leaders who've had experience working hand in glove with law enforcement. There's going to be a number of law enforcement individuals in the audience," the official said. "It's a community approach on partnering with law enforcement."
Allred, whose district includes Gateway Church, noted that Trump's dinner guests will get COVID tests from White House medical personnel that aren't universally unavailable at long-term care facilities, or for business owners and customers.
"I find it be insulting to the people in Texas who can't get tested for COVID…not only for the president to be coming to Dallas for a fundraiser, but to be making sure that everyone who gets into that fundraiser does have a COVID test," he said. "This is a slap in the face to Texans and people across the country who are still struggling because of our failure to have a national strategy."
Creuzot would have had plenty of advice to offer, on policing and other topic.
"I would tell him to get a good night's sleep. Turn off the television, turn off the phone. Stop the tweets. Stop the nonsense. Go to work," he said. "…Act appropriate. Be a unifier. Not everybody's out to get you. Not everybody needs to be attacked."
The former trial court judge, said Trump has made the job of law enforcement harder with comments urging police to rough up suspects, as he did in July 2017 when calling for crackdown on gang violence.
"Please, don't be too nice," the president told police gathered for that announcement on Long Island. "When you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head… and they've just killed somebody….You can take the hand away, okay?"
Comments like that sound like tough law and order talk, Creuzot said, but when a president says such things, "it's much more difficult to select a jury. When he tweets all this inflammatory stuff and the average person reads it - a person of color or just a person of conscience reads that - it creates doubts about the police."
"He is showing an obvious bias towards inappropriate police conduct, which does not help people of color feel safe, feel valued by him or the police in the area in which they live," Creuzot said.
Several business leaders told The Dallas Morning News that White House aides were looking for business owners who received money from the CARES Act, Congress' response to shutdowns prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Others expected at the roundtable include former state Rep. Scott Turner, a Frisco Republican.
The former NFL player chairs the White House's Opportunity and Revitalization Council and is one of the few black officials in the Trump administration.
Many prominent African American leaders in Dallas were not invited, including the Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, senior pastor at the influential Friendship-West Baptist Church.
"I would have fell out from shock and a heart attack, if he did invite me," Haynes said. "It's a dog and pony show that will be devoid of substance, if he continues on his current path."
Haynes expressed disdain for Trump posing for photos, triumphant, holding a Bible outside the historic St. John's Episcopal Church last week.
"I hope he doesn't use the event as a prop to push his political agenda," Haynes said.
David Wilson, a Dallas pastor and president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, did receive a preliminary invitation, asking if he was willing "to be vetted for a sit down meeting with the president."
"I just can't do it," he said. "I really don't want to hear the lies or be used as a prop."
Washington correspondent Tom Benning contributed to this report.
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I don't even know where to start with this one. Wait, yes I do.
He supposedly wants to have a discussion on race and police policies and procedures, but he excludes the three top law enforcement officials in the county - a police chief, sheriff and district attorney who all are black. They weren't the only ones excluded, either. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson's office said that he was invited but had a scheduling conflict. Other black officials in the area were not invited, including three members of Congress who represent parts of Dallas: U.S. Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Colin Allred of Dallas, and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth. All are Democrats.
Here's a guy needs a huge bag of kudos:
David Wilson, a Dallas pastor and president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, did receive a preliminary invitation, asking if he was willing "to be vetted for a sit down meeting with the president."
"I just can't do it," he said. "I really don't want to hear the lies or be used as a prop."
What else... Oh, yeah, everyone will be tested for Covid-19 before being allowed to be in the same room with Trump.
And finally, $580,600 per couple for a meal and a photo with this fool?
Were they actually purposely excluded? Or did they choose not to attend.
Is there more to the story?
Yes. This is how the White House excused the exclusion:
The White House defended the snub, insisting the president will still hear a diversity of views before heading to a $10 million campaign dinner with two dozen donors who pony up at least $580,600 each for a meal and souvenir photo.
Oh, and the Police Chief is a woman. A black woman. Her snub was guaranteed.
Of course there's more to the story - but you won't see it on NT.
You can only see the twisted fucked up backwards realm of right wing bullshit by going through the orange rabbits hole into bizzaro Republican world where up is down, a serial adulterer is their moral compass and kneeling on a black mans neck till he dies is just another Monday.
Link(s) please.
Why don't you do us a favor and provide the counter story 1st?
We'll wait.....
Trump is all about giving signals to his white grievance fan club, er voters, that he is one of them. It is ridiculous to hold a meeting on policing that leaves out the county's top law enforcement officials.
His Tulsa Juneteenth rally will be an even bigger disaster. He can't help himself.
Texas should just tell him to turn around and go back to DC and not to waste their time.
Wait a minute John - there's a problem with holding a political rally on Juneteenth, a purely political holiday?
It's the location. Trump has said not a word about racial inequality and all but promoted it in Charlottesville. While he did say what happened to George Floyd was terrible, he pulled up short of actually condemning the murder itself. The rally in Tulsa...."Juneteenth" rally? He could not have picked a more controversial place for a rally.
To make an admittedly poor analogy, it would be like Hitler giving a speech about equality and race relations while standing in the ovens at Auschwitz.
It's a big country, he could have chosen ANYPLACE for his rally, but he chose Tulsa? That's not a coincidence and if I had to make a guess? It's not going to go well for trump. His record for bringing people together is abysmal. My guess? He will continue to divide the nation, it's all he knows how to do.
And people like Mr. Frost and myself, choose not to be racist Tex.... Now what to you suggest to change the minds of those on the other side of that divide?
People have every right to be offended at those they are paying to do the job of law enforcement and provide justice that are providing neither.
The country is once again facing the issue of unequal treatment based upon race and at the hands of the police. By not inviting those in Dallas that are simultaneously representative of both speaks volumes that the Trump administration has no interest in dealing with either. Just another dog whistle to the racist members of his base to calling others snowflakes and such.
Don't sell yourself short. You care about yourself to an embarrassing degree.
Glad we agree on the statues coming down Tex....
Disbanding/defunding police isn't a viable approach, but getting them all to wear body cams, making the video public, generating a national law enforcement database to weed out bad cops are all steps in the right direction.
Finally a monument liberals can embrace..............................
Rest easy, Jethro, you were not my target audience.
Based upon your diatribe in 1.2.9, I see the Sister's statement being more of a public service announcement.
As far as winning with "my side", why would you want him to stroke anyone beyond his far-right evil base?
Go for it.... the damn thing is an eye-sore.
The largest majority of Americans support that which we agreed to. There are 16% at the far right and left that brought around to workable changes.
And turning them off during an encounter needs to be an offense that leads to termination. It's happened too often since bodycams became common.
And the meal will likely be from Berder King.
Whoda thunk? Trump doesn't want to talk to the top brass? It's prob'ly cuz they're part of the deep shithole state.
Only native Texans can call Texas 'the deep shithole state'.
Good thing BG,
Steve lives in/around El Paso if I remember correctly.
Well then bless his heart!
Well, thanks. Born in Amarillo, went to high school in Odessa, lived in Dallas. This is my second tour of El Chuco.
He can't handle having people around him who actually know what they are talking about.
Trump wants to be the smartest man in the room, which is why he only hangs out with a gaggle of 60 IQ morons and brown noser's who act stupid. Anyone around him for long who is smarter finds them selves kicked off the Trump boat.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump had the understanding of “a fifth- or sixth-grader,” - Gone.
White House chief of staff John Kelly called Trump “an idiot” and said he thought the president was “unhinged,” - Gone.
Chief of staff Reince Priebus called Trump an “idiot,” - Out.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said in November 2017 that Trump was “like an 11-year-old child,” - Out.
Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in July 2017 called Trump a “moron,” - Gone.
Rumor has it Steven Miller is writing the speech addressing race relations in the USA for trump to read.
I sure wish I was making that up.
Don't worry. Trump will meander off-script to perfect calls and hoaxes, transpants, infantroopens, lawmarkers, stankchuaries, slock rockets, bipartiss solucius, and durrrrrrrrs within the first minute of the speech.
The waiver for the Tulsa "event". Not shocking given that trump takes no responsibility for anything.
Catching CV at a Trump cattle call would be like a badge of honor to most of his deplorables.
Can we have them embroider a scarlet "CV" on their clothing to wear in public, or is that what the MAGA hat is for?
If Dallas has a policing abuse problem, these top administration officials are complicate with it, including the chief of police, as it probably has been going on for some time. Police brutality did not just show up the day George Floyd was killed.
In addition, more than likely all of these officials, including the congressmen who say they were also not invited, are democrats. Do you really think a democrat, who probably hates this president more than a cop killer, would show and have a civil conversation with the President.
My guess is if they WERE invited, they would decline, like the mayor did, citing "scheduling conflicts".
By them saying they were "snubbed" really means "we were not going to show anyway, so we have to make it look like Trump is racist. Nancy told us to".
Why in the world would you invite to a discussion on policing the top three law enforcement officials in the area?
It's a completely logical decision..../S
They should still have the discussion, but change the date and meeting place without notifying Trump. Give him the address to the local Spuds N' Suds so he can at least gorge himself.
You can only fit so many folks in one place.
The article makes out as if he should have invited every law enforcement office and Church leader in the State to be viable.