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Donald Trump’s ordering police officers to use tear gas to disperse protesters so he could walk to a nearby church for a purely gratuitous photo op last night was both stunningly un-American and thoroughly un-Christian. The stunt, and the threatening speech that preceded it, are further evidence that Trump does not stand for core American values, which celebrate peaceful protest and the right to assemble. Using the Bible as a prop after mobilizing the military against the American people was a cynical attempt to use Christianity as a veneer for his authoritarian aspirations. No principled American or person of faith can in good conscience defend these actions by a sitting president. They must be condemned in the strongest of terms. —Evan McMullin
Top Ten

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1. Trump orders military to 'dominate the streets' During a Rose Garden address on Monday evening, President Trump urged the nation's governors to deploy the National Guard to halt violent protests that have roiled the nation since the death of George Floyd last week. Perhaps inspired by Sen. Tom Cotton, who tweeted about it earlier, Trump threatened to use the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty military to cities and "quickly solve the problem for them." After the address, police attacked peaceful protesters gathered in Lafayette Park with tear gas to clear a path for the president—along with an entourage that included Attorney General Bill Barr, Defense Sec. Mark Esper, and Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley—to stand outside of a local church and hold up a Bible. The move angered church officials, who were not informed in advance of the stunt. —Defense One
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* — Another Twitter tough guy. Rep. Matt Gaetz called for members of Antifa to be hunted down like "terrorists" in a tweet yesterday, prompting Twitter to flag it for "glorifying violence." Undeterred, Gaetz called the warning a "badge of honor" and continued to tweet about the group, stating that "our government should hunt them down." —Politico ([link removed])
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* — The threats did little to stop protesters. Hundreds of people were arrested in New York City, despite an increased police presence on the streets. In Philadelphia, gangs of white counter-protesters loitered in multiple neighborhoods. Both cities have issued a curfew. —The Daily Beast ([link removed])
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* — An arrest in Tennessee. Nashville police have arrested Wesley Somers on charges of felony arson, vandalism, and disorderly conduct for setting fire to Nashville's Historic Courthouse. About 30 businesses and buildings were damaged during protests there. —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ([link removed])
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* — Violence goes on in Louisville. Restaurant owner and "community pillar" David McAtee died yesterday after police and National Guard members opened fire at a protest, and his body was subsequently left in the street for 12 hours. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ordered an investigation into the shooting, which revealed that police did not have their body cameras turned on, resulting in the firing of Police Chief Steve Conrad. —Business Insider ([link removed])

* — Omaha boils over. Hundreds gathered last night in Omaha, Neb., to protest after prosecutors decided not to charge a white bar owner who shot a young black man, James Scurlock, to death during a confrontation two days earlier. The prosecutor's office said the actions of the shooter were justified. —The Daily Beast ([link removed])

* — Floyd autopsy results conflicted. An independent autopsy on George Floyd concluded that he died of "asphyxiation from sustained pressure" when his neck and back were kneeled upon by Derek Chauvin—in opposition to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who found no physical findings to support this diagnosis. —CNN ([link removed])

More: Biden says country is 'crying out for leadership' amid protests (CBS News) ([link removed])

2. Boot: Trump's misguided 'law and order' "By incessantly threatening to send in the troops, while staying silent about obvious examples of police brutality, Trump makes clear that he is salivating for a reprise of the 1932 Bonus Army attack—or of the 1968 'police riot' in Chicago. But he wants to avoid taking responsibility for his racist, incendiary rhetoric. So did George Wallace. He complained, 'Well it’s a sad day in the country when you can’t talk about law and order unless they want to call you a racist.'" —The Washington Post ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Max Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of “The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam," a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

3. Exploiting protests for sinister gain Whenever there's a crisis of any kind, there's no shortage of bad actors who will exploit it to amplify their own agenda or foment confusion and chaos. The current protests are no exception. An image of the Washington Monument on fire. Claims spread under the #dcblackout hashtag that cellphones and other communication devices were blocked to allow violent police reprisals to go unreported. These are just a couple examples of protest-related disinformation that has spread on social media. —NPR ([link removed])
* — Russia and China get in on the act. The two countries are flooding social media with content targeting the ongoing unrest and violence. Since May 30, government officials, state-backed media outlets, and other Twitter users linked to either Beijing or Moscow have increasingly piggybacked onto hashtags linked to George Floyd to push divisive messages and criticize Washington's handling of the unfolding crisis. —Politico ([link removed])
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— While multiracial coalitions have marched peacefully, people of all races also appear to be participating in violence, vandalism, and looting. In some cities, local officials say black demonstrators have struggled to maintain peaceful protests in the face of young white men joining the fray, determined to commit mayhem. —The Washington Post ([link removed])
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* — "Public protests like this are going to attract people of all kinds," says Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism. "No extremist is going to miss an opportunity to try to leverage a crisis to amplify their views and push their agenda." —Yahoo News ([link removed])

More: The Boogaloo movement wants to be seen as anti-racist, but it has a white supremacist fringe (Middlebury Institute of International Studies) ([link removed])

4. MacKinnon: Is the US becoming the new China? ([link removed])

"My job as a reporter in China included trying to ask questions at government press conferences where authorities peddled lies and half-truths constantly. If somebody had told me that two decades later, White House press briefings would be that way too, I would have accused them of peddling dystopian science fiction. But here we are. My China reporting PTSD sometimes gets triggered if I watch those briefings on TV. President Donald Trump has taken a page right out of the CCP's playbook, even as he moves to punish China for having 'ripped off the United States.' On Friday, he announced that he will remove Hong Kong's special trading status in response to Beijing's crackdown on civil liberties there. Yet even as he takes this position, his own efforts to bend the law, demonize the press, lie to the American public, and keep himself in office by suppressing the vote, threaten to make America more like China." —CNN
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Ed. Note: Rebecca MacKinnon is the author of "Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom," the founding director of the Ranking Digital Rights research program at New America, and a fellow with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.

5. Friction between China and the WHO ([link removed])

Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for its response to the novel coronavirus, but behind the scenes, it was a different story. Significant delays by China caused considerable frustration among WHO officials over not rapidly getting information needed to fight the spread of the virus. China sat on the genetic map of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information, due to tight controls on data and competition within the Chinese public health system. —Associated Press ([link removed])
* — WHO wants to stay close. Despite President Trump's announcing last week that the U.S. would be "terminating" its relationship with the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the organization, said yesterday the U.S. role in the health agency's work has been "immense," and he wants that collaboration to continue on some level. —NBC News ([link removed])
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* — Fauci on the outs. Back in the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top public health expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said yesterday that he is no longer in frequent contact with Trump, which is likely to spark fresh concerns that he is being frozen out of the White House. —The Guardian ([link removed])
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— It could take a decade to recover. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the sharp contraction triggered by the coronavirus pandemic has caused it to mark down its 2020-30 forecast for U.S. economic output by a cumulative $7.9 trillion, or 3% of gross domestic product. GDP isn't expected to catch up to the previously forecast level until the fourth quarter of 2029. —The Wall Street Journal ([link removed])

More: Is the coronavirus really losing potency in Italy? What you need to know (Forbes) ([link removed])
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6. Mueller grand jury back in the news The Department of Justice officially asked the Supreme Court yesterday to overturn a lower court decision that would give House Democrats access to the grand jury materials from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. This move represents yet another Trump-related case likely heading to the Supreme Court. ([link removed])
* — "In light of the national prominence of this grand-jury investigation, the separation-of-powers concerns raised by the decision below, and the potential damage that decision could inflict on 'the proper functioning of our grand jury system,' this Court’s review is warranted," the DOJ wrote to the Supreme Court. ([link removed])
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* — Democrats are seeking the grand jury materials to get a better understanding of Trump's efforts to obstruct Mueller's investigation, as well as his campaign's interactions with Russian government officials. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit decided in March that the House impeachment inquiry was sufficient justification to request the sealed documents. ([link removed])
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* — The Supreme Court granted the DOJ's request to halt the disclosure order after the three-judge panel made its decision. It is unclear when the case will be taken up by the Supreme Court. —The Hill ([link removed])

More: DOJ urges appeals court to force dismissal of Flynn case (Politico) ([link removed])

7. BG Ed Board: Vote-by-mail is safe...and necessary ([link removed])

"President Trump could turn out to be the best frenemy mail-in voting ever had. The president’s recent Twitter rant alleging that mail-in voting breeds voter fraud—and the social media giant's efforts to set the record straight—has certainly upped the ante on one of the most critical issues facing this state and a host of others in the months leading up to the November election. ... The relevant studies are many, of course. Among the most recent is one from the UCLA Voting Rights Project, published last month, which is actually a compilation of many studies done over the past several years. 'We conclude that vote-by-mail does not increase voter fraud and that necessary safeguards are well documented in states that routinely process millions of mail ballots without any voter fraud,' the authors wrote." —The Boston Globe ([link removed])

More: Massachusetts bill would expand 2020 voting accessibility amid pandemic (ABC News) ([link removed])

8. Republicans take on redistricting Republicans are trying to make inroads on the issue of redistricting, an area dominated by Democratic groups. The American Redistricting Project, launched by the Fair Lines Foundation, claims to be non-partisan, despite its partisan funders, and seeks to be a one-stop shop for news and statistics related to redistricting. ([link removed])
* — "If you are interested in redistricting and you're a college student or you are a reporter, you end up at the Brennan Center or you end up at a couple of blogs done by college professors, but there's nothing from the conservative movement," says Adam Kincaid, executive director of the Fair Lines Foundation. "What we wanted to do was to fill that vacuum." ([link removed])
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* — The American Redistricting Project website contains redistricting data and U.S. House election results dating all the way back to 1962. It also contains information on each state's redistricting process and the status of election-related litigation working its way through the country's courts. ([link removed])
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* — The Fair Lines Foundation is the nonprofit arm of the National Republican Redistricting Trust (NRRT), led by Kincaid and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The NRRT recently filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to create the National Republican Redistricting PAC, which will allow the group to raise money and eventually become involved in races or redistricting-related litigation. —The Hill ([link removed])

More: Maine Republicans to make final big push to stop ranked-choice voting (Portland Press Herald) ([link removed])

9. Schwarzenegger: We need to do better "As patriotic Americans, we want to believe that our nation is beyond racism. As individuals, we don't want to believe that we harbor subtle stereotypes and prejudices. But it is important work, because the greatness of America doesn't come from the status quo; it comes from our constant struggle to live up to our promise. This, to me, is not a political issue. It is a patriotic issue. When Thomas Jefferson wrote that 'all men are created equal,' our country certainly didn't live up to that promise. But generations since have pushed the boundaries, bringing equality closer and closer to reality. That is the American story, and we must remember that it's a painful story for anyone left out of the promise." —The Atlantic ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Arnold Schwarzenegger was the 38th governor of California.

10. An American Story: Helping hands supplying food Dani Tuller and Mike Mirande of Bucks Co., Pa., are using their extra time to team up with some friends to raise money for "Fuel the Fight," a GoFundMe initiative that raises money to purchase food from local restaurants for frontline workers. ([link removed])
* — "We get the money, we call the hospital, we set it up, we see how many people are on each shift, how many people we can accommodate, and then we reach out to our individual vendors," said Mirande. ([link removed])
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* — Through the GoFundMe account, they have doubled their $5,000 goal in a month, and it keeps growing. ([link removed])
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* — "The hospitals and healthcare workers are really just grateful for what we can provide so we usually do sandwiches with a side," said Tuller. Great job, Dani and Mike! —ABC News ([link removed])

Ed. Note: We are spotlighting ways that Americans are helping each other through the coronavirus crisis and recent unrest. Would you like to suggest an "American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) . Thank you!
What's Your Take?

Thanks for your coverage on George Floyd's tragic murder and the violent protests. As another person commented, not all police officers are bad. There are many who are fair. But there seems to be a culture in the fraternity of not stopping your fellow officers from going too far. Why did those other officers simply stand by and do nothing to stop the cruel violence that was being inflicted on a helpless human being by an arrogant fellow officer? This "Three Musketeers" culture needs to stop! —Tracy C., Utah

I think San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich says it better than anyone in this article: [link removed] —Jamie H., Montana

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