Top Republican supports a national ban on police chokeholds – live

The Trump campaign’s invite for rallies now includes a coronavirus disclaimer, CNN notes:

There have been growing concerns that the recent mass protests could lead to a spike in coronavirus cases, though public health experts have said the police response, including tear gas, pepper spray and aggressively arresting people could exacerbate problems.

There are likely to be concerns about Covid exposure at the president’s upcoming rallies, which come as much of the US is reopening despite the ongoing pandemic.

The attorney general at Trump’s event also says, “The real oppression and danger to our communities comes more from violent crime and lawlessness than it does from the police.”

Fact check: Violent crime has steadily decreased in the US, but police continue to kill nearly 1,000 people every year. Police in the US kill more people in days than many countries do in years.

At Trump’s roundtable, attorney general Bill Barr says, “We’ve never had a president who’s more committed to reforming law enforcement.”

Fact check: The Trump administration abandoned Obama-era police reform efforts, which had included civil rights investigations into local police agencies with documented records of abuse and problems. “Police departments are not investigated under this administration,” Christy Lopez, who led the justice department group investigating police departments under Obama, recently told the Washington Post.

The roll-back of Obama’s efforts began under attorney general Jeff Sessions.

Hi all – Sam Levin in Los Angeles, taking over our live coverage. Trump is currently doing a roundtable on police. The president is focused on defending police and presenting problems with officers as isolated incidents. He said:

And you always have a bad apple no matter where you go. You have bad apples. And there are not too many of them, and I can tell you, there are not too many in the police department.”

In the massive protests of the last two weeks, there has been a growing interest in the movement to defund police, with activists arguing that brutality and killing are not isolated problems but systemic issues, and that the best way forward is to take funding away from law enforcement.

While many defenders of police have cited the “bad apple” argument in recent days, there have been increasing accusations of widespread abuse. In Los Angeles, for example, police are now investigating 57 cases of alleged misconduct by officers during the protests.

Trump has arrived in Dallas, Texas, for his rountable on “historic economic, health, and justice disparities in American communities.” as protests against police brutality continue across the country.

The president was greeted on the tarmac by Texas governor Greg Abbott, lieutenant governor Dan Patrick and attorney general Ken Paxton.

Two congressional candidates who the president has endorsed were also present for Trump’s arrival. Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville, who is running against Trump’s former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in Alabama, and House candidate Ronny Jackson, who previously served as Trump’s White House physician, welcomed Air Force One in Dallas.

A lawyer for Martin Gugino said the 75-year-old is starting physical therapy, after he was pushed to the ground by two police officers during a George Floyd protest.

“As heartbreaking as it is, his brain is injured and he is well aware of that now,” lawyer Kelly Zarcone said in a statement, per NBC New York.

“He feels encouraged and uplifted by the outpouring of support which he has received from so many people all over the globe. It helps. He is looking forward to healing and determining what his ‘new normal’ might look like.”

Trump was widely criticized earlier this week after he suggested (without evidence) that Gugino was an Antifa plant, which Zarcone vehemently denied. One of Gugino’s friends told CNN that the man “had a good chuckle” about Trump’s tweet.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham expressed support for General Mark Milley, after the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff apologized for participating in Trump’s photo op at St John’s Church last week.

“I have nothing but deep admiration for and total confidence in General Milley as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Graham said in a tweet. “I support his statement in both substance and spirit regarding the recent presidential visit to St. Johns.”

The tweet was a bit surprising coming from Graham, who is one of the president’s closest Senate allies and is generally reluctant to criticize him.

Milley said in a prerecorded video released today that he should not have been at St John’s moments after peaceful protesters nearby were forcibly removed using tear gas.

“My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” Milley told the graduates of National Defense University. “As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”

Democratic congressman Bobby Rush said his South Side office had been vandalized two weeks ago amid the George Floyd protests, and his staff later discovered the footage showing several officers in his office as looting took place nearby.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot said as many as 13 officers, including supervisors, were in Rush’s office at various points in the early hours of June 1, even as the mall where the office is located became the target of looting.

The mayor said the officers “abandoned” their obligations and would be “thoroughly” investigated to determine who was responsible.

“Not one of these officers will be allowed to hide behind the badge and go on like nothing happened,” Lightfoot said.

Miranda Bryant reports for the Guardian from New York:

Following widespread criticism over officers not wearing face masks – including from lawyers, protesters and the mayor – New York Police Department have issued a bizarre response, claiming: “We can put our energy to better use”.

The statement, sent out in response to questions over why the majority of officers do not appear to be wearing masks, references the weather, long days and uniforms, but makes no reference to coronavirus or public health in the middle of a pandemic.

“Perhaps it was the heat. Perhaps it was the 15-hour tours, wearing bullet resistant vests in the sun. Perhaps it was the helmets,” Sgt Jessica McRorie, a spokesperson for the deputy commissioner for public information, said last night.

“With everything New York city has been through in the past two weeks and everything we are working towards together, we can put our energy to a better use.”

It comes after legal experts warned of “abysmal” conditions for protesters who they said are being unnecessarily arrested and detained for as long as 48 hours without access to masks, food and water.

The Legal Aid Society told The Guardian that police officers “rarely” wear masks and are endangering protesters’ health and safety. On Sunday, New York mayor Bill de Blasio called on NYPD officers to wear masks, accusing them of “flouting the rules”.

Despite the president’s opposition, an increasing number of Republican lawmakers are expressing openness to renaming military bases named after Confederate generals.

Republican senator and veteran Joni Ernst, who is up for reelection this year, told Iowa reporters today, “I know there will be opposition to [renaming the bases], but it is a discussion that we absolutely need to have.”

Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota said he agreed with Trump that we should not “forget our history,” but he added, “At the same time, that doesn’t mean that we should continue with those bases with the names of individuals who fought against our country.”

Amid a similar debate over removing Confederate statues from the Capitol, senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said earlier today, “A lot of those statues and monuments were put there to kind of declare, ‘We’re not going to integrate.’ … For those that were digging in during the time of Jim Crow, they need to know that time has passed.”

Joe Biden has released a plan on how to reopen the US economy in a way that is “as effective and safe as possible” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The plan calls for guaranteeing coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment for anyone called back to work, as well as paid leave for anyone who gets sick. Biden also proposed creating a national contact tracing workforce and establishing best practices for schools and childcare facilities to reopen.

“A stronger, more effective reopening requires doing the work to keep workers safe, to restore consumer confidence, to support small businesses, to ensure seniors can participate, and to provide parents with the help they need to get back to work,” the Biden campaign said in a press release about the plan.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee criticized Trump last week for celebrating the unemployment rate slightly dropping to 13.3%, emphasizing that 20 million Americans are still out of work.

“Trump has abdicated any effective federal leadership, leaving state, tribal, and local officials to do their best without help from Washington,” the Biden campaign said. “With cases of COVID-19 still rising rapidly in parts of the country, Trump has effectively ceased to mobilize any national public health response.”

Trump is now en route to Dallas, Texas, where he will host a roundtable discussion on plans for a national “holistic revitalization and recovery,” according to the White House. The president will also attend a high-dollar fundraiser for his reelection campaign.

Joe Biden released a statement earlier today criticizing Trump for making the trip, particularly because Texas is seeing a rise in coronavirus infections after relaxing some social distancing restrictions.

“For weeks we’ve seen President Trump run away from a meaningful conversation on systemic racism and police brutality. Instead, he’s further divided our country. Today’s trip to Texas won’t change any of that,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said.

“He should be implementing an effective plan to re-open our communities so more Americans aren’t lost to this disease. Families in the Lone Star State are hurting and they deserve a President who will rise to the challenges facing our country.”