U.S. President Donald Trump retweeted a clip that showed one of his supporters in Florida shouting 'white power' at the protesters of his administrations drawing immediate anger from the only Black Republican in the Senate.
The video that Trump tweeted shows the protesters add supporters shouting curses at each other. As a protester called a Trump supporter a racist, the man responded by raising his fist and also shouting "white power."
Trump Retweets Video Showing His Supporter Shouting 'White Power'
The slogan is often used by white supremacists. "There's no question that he should not have retweeted it and he should just take it down," U.S. Senator Tim Scott told CNN's "State of the Union" program. The White House had no immediate comment and the tweet remains up.
The tweet comes on the heels of Trump's hostile response to protests against racial injustice engulfing the United States following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes in Minneapolis. In the tweet, Trump wrote "Thank you to the great people of The Villages", a retirement community in Florida he visited last year.
"It was so profanity-laced, the entire thing was offensive. Certainly, the comment about the white power was offensive," the South Carolina Republican added. "It's indefensible. We should take it down." Trump has been accused of racism by lawmakers for his tweets in the past, including for attacks on Black lawmakers and for telling four congresswomen of color that they should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came."
(With agency inputs)
