Today saw an incredible claim from Attorney General William Barr that Donald Trump had asked him to coordinate White House and Washington, D.C. security—a move apparently stripping or overriding the authority of the Department of Homeland Security and seemingly granting Barr powers far outside the scope of his own department.
Barr and those he assembled for a vile and unconvincing press briefing today appeared to confirm that the unidentified "federal officers" wearing no badges or consistent uniforms were indeed Bureau of Prisons riot teams, one of the few federal law enforcement teams under Barr's legitimate control. He dismissed calls for them to identify themselves.
Democrats, protesters, civil rights experts, and others are outraged, blasting Barr's unmarked army as "an American secret police."
In protest news today:
• Retired top military officials continue to come forward to warn that Donald Trump's actions to suppress peaceful protests—and his television-timed attack on a peaceful crowd for no better reason than a photo op—are a danger to the nation. Retired four-star Marine Gen. John Allen blasted Trump and warned we may be "witnessing the beginning of the end of American democracy." He joins former Gen. Jim Mattis, former U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, former Gen. Martin Dempsey and others in condemning Trump's actions.
• After attacking St. John's Church, driving out clergy, and trespassing without permission on church property for a photo op, Trump and Barr blocked Bishop Mariann Budde from returning to the church for a planned vigil—because the church is now inside the new "security" perimeter. That perimeter continues to expand despite protests in the area remaining peaceful.
• Republican lawmakers are reeling after former Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis' blistering public condemnation of Trump, the latest episode in the national crisis that House and Senate Republicans are, almost to a person, pretending they haven't seen or are refusing to comment on. Evidence that any of them will remember their own oaths of office remains thin.
• The New York Times is facing anger both in their ranks and nationwide for publishing an explicitly fascist editorial by Sen. Tom Cotton, one in which he called for the deployment of the military to put down the protests.
• With yet more language seemingly aimed at stoking far-right violence, the Trump campaign today sent supporters an email inviting them to join the "Trump Army," which it described as "the President's first line of defense when it comes to fighting off the Liberal MOB."
• An anti-lynching bill that had gained the previously unanimous support of the Senate was blocked today by Sen. Rand Paul and is expected to now be shelved indefinitely by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
• New evidence shows Ahmaud Arbery's execution at the hands of two white Georgia vigilantes was even more horrific than previously known.
• The Los Angeles County Sheriff puffed on Tuesday that the city's curfew would continue "until the organized protests are gone." Protesters responded on Wednesday with possibly the biggest march yet.
• A live news crew caught the response of Los Angeles officers flagged down over the attempted looting of a store, in which officers handcuffed the Black Americans defending the store while the looters ran off.
• Fox News nutcase Laura Ingraham, a racist? Go figure.
• Meghan McCain is dishonest? Go figure!
• On both Monday and Tuesday, protesters in Portland, Oregon blocked a major city bridge by lying down for nine minutes in memory of George Floyd.