Former US President Donald Trump raised the possibility of “shoot the legs” of protesters gathered in front of the White House during the 2020 anti-racism protests, according to a book to be published by his former defense secretary, Mark Esper.
In fragments obtained by the information platform Axios and published today Monday, the former head of the Pentagon between July 2019 and November 2020 affirms that, during the demonstrations against racism in June 2020, then-President Trump, very irritated, said in the Oval Office: “Can’t you just shoot them? Shoot their legs or something.”
On June 1, 2020, there were demonstrations around the White House following the death, days before, of the African-American George Floydin Minneapolis, at the hands of a police officer who kept his knee pressed on his neck.
Mark Esper described this scene in the Oval Office as “surreal”, in the memoir that will be published on May 10 in the United States, under the title “A Sacred Oath”.
“The good news: it was not a difficult decision” not to follow the idea of the Republican president, he referred in the book. “The bad: I had to find a way to push Trump back without making a fuss, which is what I was trying to avoid.”
In another book published in August 2021, the journalist Michael Bender He had already stated that Trump had repeatedly exclaimed “shoot them” during the June 2020 demonstrations. (EFE)
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