Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser accused President Donald Trump of attempting to “hearken to the segregationist past of our country,” referring to his remarks on Twitter about the nationwide riots underway.
Host Chuck Todd asked, “You have one resident in Washington, D.C. who I think was back seat driving you on Friday night. I’m referring to the president. I know you believe he hasn’t played a helpful role. You made that very clear on Twitter yesterday. Can he play a helpful role still? Or is it too late?”
Bowser said, “I think that the president has a responsibility to help calm the nation, and he can start by not sending divisive tweets that are meant to hearken to the segregationist past of our country. And he can start by doing that right now. We certainly urge him to do that. We, as Mayor Bottoms has just said, we have systematic issues in our country to address. And it’s going to take us at every level, federal and local. It’s going to take community and government to heal the hurt that people are feeling. So what you see in cities across our nations, what we saw last night, there are people who are angry and people who are hurting. And some not, not doing it in ways that are helpful to our cause. But we still have to acknowledge that hurt and that anger.”
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