On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” CNN host and Chief Domestic Correspondent Jim Acosta stated that the report by Interior Department Inspector General Mark Greenblatt that Park Police did not clear protesters from Lafayette Park so then-President Donald Trump could do a photo op “sounded as if this inspector general was auditioning to become the inspector general at Mar-a-Lago.” And “is almost a whitewash of what occurred on June 1.”
Acosta said, “I certainly think it raises more questions than it answers. I mean, the IG report is saying that the Park Police cleared the park with the purpose of setting up this fence. Because obviously, the protesters needed to be moved back from this area where they were defacing statues and potentially pulling down the Andrew Jackson statue and so on. I was in the Rose Garden that day when Trump gave that speech and said I’m going to go to this special place, talking about the church, and you could hear the Park Police and other federal forces, D.C. police, clearing that park. They were violently pummeling protesters, tear-gassing protesters. Remember, at the time, the White House was telling us, oh, we didn’t use tear gas. The D.C. police were using tear gas.”
He continued, “The other thing that is not clear about all of this is what did the White House team know at this time? According to the inspector general’s report, they did not speak to senior White House officials. They did not speak to the Secret Service. So, this certainly raises more questions.”
Acosta added, “And I have to say, when I read through this report, it sounded as if this inspector general was auditioning to become the inspector general at Mar-a-Lago. Because I mean, this is almost a whitewash of what occurred on June 1. These protesters were largely demonstrating peacefully and were violently cleared from that park.”
After co-host John Berman stated that the report says that Park Police didn’t clear protesters so Trump could go hold up the Bible, Acosta responded that we don’t know “what the White House was plotting at the same time. Remember, if you look at this inspector general’s report, there’s one point where a Park Police commander talks to the attorney general and the attorney general says, this is in the IG report, are these protesters still going to be here when the president comes out? So clearly, they had this intent to use the clearing of the park to stage this photo opportunity, even if that was not the original intent of the Park Police.”
(h/t Mediaite)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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