By Jack Davis
President Donald Trump’s mention of George Floyd Friday during an impromptu call for equality that took place during a White House event triggered misleading media reports claiming Trump was talking about Floyd in the context of positive economic numbers.
For example, the New York Daily News headlined its coverage: “Trump says he hopes George Floyd is ‘looking down’ from heaven while touting new job numbers: ‘It’s a great day for him.'”
The website Mediaite covered the event in a similar fashion, writing, “Trump at Jobs Presser: Hopefully George Floyd is ‘Looking Down Right Now Saying This is a Great Thing.'”
John Wingrove, the White House reporter for Bloomberg News, tweeted, “Trump suggests that George Floyd would approve of today’s jobs numbers.”
Other media outlets followed the pack.
The reality of Trump’s news conference was different.
Although positive news on the economic front was, in fact, the trigger for the event, Trump — who often improvises during news conferences and speaks about what is on his mind in addition to the topic of the day — covered a number of subjects, including the coronavirus and veterans, as well as talking about Floyd after discussing opportunity zones in inner cities and historically black colleges and universities.
“It’s now time for us to work together as we rebuild, renew and recover the great promise of America, and that’s true, we’re going to work together,” Trump said. “It’ll all work out. It’ll all work out. Some governors may need a little help yet, but I think for the most part, they are in good shape.”
Trump then began to touch on the issue of protests and riots in the aftermath of Floyd’s death.
“We have a fantastic military. We have fantastic National Guard. The National Guard was barely used and these people have done an unbelievable job. They helped the secret service at Washington. Secret service by the way, are unbelievable,” Trump said.
The president then talked about the need for governors to control the streets of major cities.
“And I really am suggesting because if you look at Minnesota and the great success we had there, and other places, I’m suggesting to some of these governors that are too proud in New York, you see what’s going on there. Don’t be proud, get the job done. You’ll end up looking much better in the end. Call in the national guard, call me. We’ll have so many people, more people than you have to dominate the streets. You can’t let what’s happening happen. It’s called dominate the streets. You can’t let that happen in New York where they’re breaking into stores and all of the things. And by the way, hurting many small businesses, you can’t let it happen,” Trump said.
Trump’s thoughts then turned to Floyd, and how America must respond to his death.
“Equal justice under the law must mean that every American receives equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement, regardless of race, color, gender or creed, they have to receive fair treatment from law enforcement. They have to receive it. We all saw what happened last week. We can’t let that happen,” Trump said.
Then came the remarks taken out of context by the media.
“Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.’ This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality. It’s really what our constitution requires and it’s what our country is all about,” Trump said.
Trump then resumed the event’s scheduled focus on the jobs report.
Author: Jack Davis
Source: Western Journal: Media Hit New Low With Outrageous Lie About Trump's George Floyd Quote
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