CLAIM: In order to get a picture with a Bible, President Joe Biden said that former President Trump had tear-gassed peaceful protestors in Lafayette Square.
VERDICT: Untrue. There have been multiple refutations of this assertion. In June 2021, a report by the U.S. Department of Interior’s inspector general cleared Trump of accusations that, while participating in a church photo op in June 2020, he had deployed tear gas on nonviolent protestors in Lafayette Square.
In his assertion, Biden asked what he believed Trump “would have done” in the event that, on January 6, 2021, “black Americans invaded the Capitol.”
At a campaign event in Philadelphia, Biden posed the question, “What do you think he would have done on Jan. 6 if Black Americans had stormed the… think about this?” “What do you believe would have occurred if African Americans had taken over the Capitol building?” In my opinion, he would not be talking about pardons. This is the same person who advocated using tear gas on you while you were peacefully opposing George Floyd’s death.
Democrats and a number of media outlets misrepresented the facts when they said that Trump deployed tear gas on nonviolent protestors to clear the park for a photo op. Biden made up the accusation that Trump had turned the Bible “upside down” at the time.
The inspector general’s findings verified the versions of events offered by Trump and former Attorney General William Barr that day:
“On May 29, 2020, protests started in and around Lafayette Park. To coordinate the law enforcement response to the protests, the USPP [U.S. Park Police] and USSS created a single command on May 30. At least 49 USPP officers sustained injuries while monitoring the demonstrations from May 30 to May 31, and both federal and private property suffered vandalism.
“To create a more protective perimeter surrounding Lafayette Park, the Secret Service ordered an antiscale fence early on June 1 and scheduled its delivery and installation for the same day. To ensure that the contractor’s workers could safely erect the fence, the USPP decided, in cooperation with the Secret Service, to remove protestors from the park and its surrounding areas. As soon as enough law enforcement officers and fence supplies reached the area, the USPP intended to begin the operation. “In order to remove and protect areas near the park, the USPP and the Secret Service received assistance from six additional law enforcement agencies.”
“The procedure started at 6:23 p.m. and ended at 6:50 p.m. President Trump strolled from the White House to St. John’s Church across Lafayette Park shortly after 7:01 p.m. The contractor started assembling and installing the antiscale fence at 7:30 p.m. and finished it by about 12:30 a.m. on June 2.
The report also states, “We could not obtain evidence establishing that the USPP cleared Lafayette Park so the President could visit St. John’s Church.”
In his book Exposing the Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption, Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow noted that the news media developed a “brief obsession” with Trump’s decision to take a “short walk from the White House through Lafayette Square to the church.”
The Democratic Media Complex “wildly inflated the law enforcement response, alleging that they had deployed tear gas on peaceful protestors,” according to Marlow, as they so often do.
Marlow continues, saying that even after it was revealed that the “Park Police indicated they deployed canisters, not tear gas,” “not one of these assertions was reversed.” In addition, demonstrators repeatedly yelled at law enforcement officials to leave the area and hurled water bottles at them.
According to a USPP statement:
“Officers then used pepper balls and smoke canisters as many of the demonstrators turned more aggressive, kept hurling objects, and tried to seize their guns. USPP police and other supporting law enforcement partners did not deploy tear gas to seize the area at Lafayette Park.”
The inspector general’s findings reveal that the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, under the leadership of Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, employed tear gas. Bowser has justified using tear gas on demonstrators.
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) and Biden have made the same accusation multiple times: that demonstrators were using tear gas in the vicinity of the White House.
The day following the Capitol violence on January 6, Biden reiterated his accusations that Trump had used “tear gas” to clear the park of demonstrators and had turned the Bible “upside down.”
