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President Donald Trump blasted governors as “weak” over their responses to weekend demonstrations in U.S. cities, telling them to get tougher on protesters amid outrage sparked by the death of George Floyd while he was in police custody.
Trump met with governors and law-enforcement and national-security officials following a separate one-on-one meeting with Attorney General William Barr, the White House said.
Floyd, a black man, died after he was pinned at the neck for several minutes by a white Minneapolis police officer.
Barr, reported the Associated Press, was on Trump’s call and told governors they have to “dominate” the streets and control, not react to crowds. He’s called on them to “go after troublemakers” and use “adequate force.”
On Sunday, Trump said the U.S. would designate anti-fascism activists as a terrorist organization. But as the New York Times reported, his declaration against antifa, which the administration sought to blame for violent protests, lacked clear legal authority. Antifa does not have a leader or a centralized structure, as the Times writes.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Trump did not have the authority to designate a domestic terrorist group.
As Trump sought to blame antifa for the protests, there wasn’t agreement on who was behind them.
“The truth is, nobody really knows,” said Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general, in a Sunday appearance on “Meet the Press.” He said he had reports some protesters were from inside Minnesota, and that some were from “out of town.”
New York Police Department investigators said on Sunday they believed outside anarchist groups coordinated efforts to incite violence during the weekend protests in the city, the Wall Street Journal wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
