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AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EDT

| June 1, 2020 6:30 PM

Trump threatens military force against protesters nationwide

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to deploy the United States military unless states quickly halted the violent protests that have convulsed cities from coast to coast, speaking in the White House Rose Garden as tear gas canisters could be heard exploding just a block away.

Trump said he was recommending that governors deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers to “dominate the streets.” If governors fail to take action, the president said, he will mobilize “thousands and thousands” of U.S. soldiers and “quickly solve the problem for them.”

“We have the greatest country in the world,” the president declared. “We’re going to keep it safe.”

Minutes before Trump began speaking, police and National Guard soldiers began aggressively forcing back hundreds of peaceful protesters who had gathered in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, where they were chanting against police brutality and the Minneapolis death of George Floyd.

Floyd died last week after he was pinned to the pavement by a police officer who put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck until he stopped breathing. His death set off protests that spread from Minneapolis across America. His brother Terrence pleaded with protesters on Monday to remain peaceful.

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The Latest: Washington governor slams Trump as `incapable'

The Latest on the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck:

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OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday evening slammed President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the United States military to American cities to quell a rise of violent protests.

In an emailed statement in response to the president’s comments, the Democrat said Trump “has repeatedly proven he is incapable of governing and shown nothing but false bravado throughout the chaos that has accompanied his time in office.”

“He cowers at the feet of authoritarians around the world,” Inslee said. “Now he uses the most supreme power of the presidency in a desperate attempt to hide his timidity and vapidity. I pray no soldier and no civilian is injured or killed by this reckless fit.”

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Trump declares he's president of law, order amid protests

WASHINGTON (AP) —

Amid racial unrest across the nation, President Donald Trump on Monday declared himself “the president of law and order” and threatened to deploy the United States military to American cities to quell a rise of violent protests.

As Trump spoke, an incredible TV split screen developed around the White House. While he addressed the nation in the White House's idyllic Rose Garden, a series of military vehicles rolled out front on Pennsylvania Avenue and military police and law enforcement clashed with protesters at Lafayette Park.

Those peaceful demonstrators were cleared so Trump could walk across the park to St. John’s Episcopal Church, known as “The Church of the Presidents,” which suffered fire damage in a protest this week. Holding a Bible, he then stood with several of his Cabinet members as the cameras clicked.

“We have the greatest country in the world," Trump declared. “We're going to keep it safe."

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'Hate just hides': Biden vows to take on systematic racism

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Joe Biden vowed to address institutional racism in his first 100 days in office as he sought to elevate his voice Monday in the exploding national debate over racism and police brutality.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee offered emotional support and promised bold action during an in-person discussion with black leaders in Delaware and a subsequent virtual meeting with big-city mayors who are grappling with racial tensions and frustrated by a lack of federal support.

“Hate just hides. It doesn’t go away, and when you have somebody in power who breathes oxygen into the hate under the rocks, it comes out from under the rocks,” Biden told more than a dozen African American leaders gathered at a church in downtown Wilmington, his face mask lowered around his chin as he spoke.

Without offering specifics, he promised to “deal with institutional racism” and set up a police oversight body in his first 100 days in office, if elected. The former vice president also said he'd be releasing an economic plan focused on education, housing and “access to capital" and investments, especially for minority Americans, later this month.

“I really do believe that the blinders have been taken off. I think this tidal wave is moving,” Biden told the mayors of Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and St. Paul, Minnesota. “I realize we’ve got to do something big, we can do it, and everyone will benefit from it.”

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Sobering US nursing home death report as lockdowns ease

WASHINGTON (AP) — At least a quarter of the COVID-19 deaths in the United States were among nursing home residents, a new report said, a disclosure that came as coronavirus restrictions eased Monday even as U.S. protests against police brutality sparked fears of new outbreaks.

The Florida Keys welcomed visitors for the first time in two months, the Colosseum opened its ancient doors in Rome, ferries restarted in Bangladesh and golfers played in Greece. But as tourist destinations worldwide reopened for business, new rules were in place to guard against the virus’ spread.

“Bring facial coverings, gloves, hand sanitizer, reef-safe sunscreen and personal essential medicines. If you’re feeling unwell, please stay home,” the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, which includes the tourist-dependent Keys, said on its website.

Electronic signs warned travelers to two of the world’s largest casinos about COVID-19 on the first day they partially reopened over Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s objections. “Avoid Large Crowds, Don’t Gamble With COVID,” flashed the signs near Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun as cars — many with Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York license plates — passed by.

Meanwhile, the scope of the devastation in the nation's nursing homes became clearer in a report prepared for U.S. governors that said nearly 26,000 nursing home residents have died from COVID-19 — a number that is partial and likely to go higher.

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Brooms in hand, people patch up stores damaged in protests

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Carrying brooms, shovels, trash bags and cans of paint, thousands of people from Los Angeles to New York swept up glass from broken store windows, covered over graffiti and organized ransacked businesses Monday after protests over police killings of black people turned destructive once again.

Some showed up only hours after taking part in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, a black man pinned to the ground by a white Minneapolis police officer who pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes. Many said cleaning felt cathartic during a dark period for a nation battling the coronavirus pandemic, the job losses that followed and now the worst racial unrest in half a century.

Bill Stuehler donned a mask Sunday and marched with a fellow nurse and other activists in Los Angeles, later trying to stop young people from breaking into stores and stealing. At home, he kept watching the violence on live feeds and fell deeper into despair.

So before sunrise, the 66-year-old grabbed brooms, a rake and a trash shovel and drove to nearby Long Beach to clean up the mess. Soon, more than 2,000 people were working side by side, scrubbing, filling trash containers and repairing what they could in the hard-hit city south of Los Angeles.

“It was pretty amazing to see the number of people turn out for the community,” Stuehler said. “It restored the faith in humanity that I had lost last night.”

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Louisville police chief fired in aftermath of fatal shooting

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louisville's police chief was fired Monday after the mayor learned that officers involved in a shooting that killed the popular owner of a barbecue spot failed to activate body cameras during the chaotic scene.

David McAtee, known for offering meals to police officers, died early Monday while police officers and National Guard soldiers were enforcing a curfew amid waves of protests over a previous police shooting in Kentucky's largest city. Police said they were responding to gunfire from a crowd.

The U.S. attorney said federal authorities will join state police in investigating the fatal shooting.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer revealed that authorities lacked body camera video for the investigation just hours after Kentucky's governor demanded the release of police video.

“This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated," Fischer said. “Accordingly, I have relieved Steve Conrad of his duties as chief of Louisville Metro Police Department.”

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Judge: Justice Department reversal in Flynn case 'unusual'

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday defended his decision not to quickly approve the Justice Department's request to dismiss its own criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying that the department's reversal was unusual and he wanted to consider the request carefully before ruling on it.

The brief from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan offers the most detailed explanation for his refusal to immediately sign off on the department's decision to drop its case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. It raises the prospect of a drawn-out clash between two branches of government over whether a judge can be forced to unwind a guilty plea at the Justice Department's behest.

Flynn’s attorneys have urged the Washington-based federal appeals court to order Sullivan to grant the department’s request. But Sullivan laid out in detail his reasons for his concern as he urged the appeals court to stay out of the case until he has a chance to study the dismissal request, which he said he may ultimately grant.

“The question before this Court is whether it should short-circuit this process, forbid even a limited inquiry into the government’s motion, and order that motion granted,” lawyers for Sullivan wrote. "The answer is no.”

The Justice Department, in its own brief Monday, said Sullivan has no authority “to stand in the way of a dismissal the defendant does not oppose.” It urged the appeals court to direct him to drop the case.

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LA has seen racial uprisings, many not shocked by new round

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When violent protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man pinned down by a white Minneapolis officer, reached Los Angeles, people of color expressed heartbreak but not necessarily surprise — they had seen it nearly 30 years ago during the Rodney King riots.

On April 29, 1992, thousands in the city's largely minority south side took to the streets after an all-white jury acquitted four white police officers of attacking King, a black driver, after a traffic stop. The outcome outraged a community that watched video of King being beaten with police batons, shot with stun guns and stomped on.

By the time order was restored, rioting had spread across much of LA for five days, leaving more than 60 people dead, over 2,300 injured and $1 billion in property damage. Smoke enveloped the city after hundreds of buildings burned to the ground.

The losses are far higher than in protests over Floyd's killing that have swept the nation for days, devolving into people setting buildings and police cars on fire, smashing their way into stores and hurling rocks and bottles at officers. Police have responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and thousands of arrests, many of them in LA.

Kerman Maddox was a young radio reporter who lived just a block from one of the flashpoints in the 1992 riots.

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Peaceful protesters get lost in action-packed coverage

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's unrest has made for an unprecedented nightly action show on television, with control rooms that switch quickly between cars ablaze, police officers advancing on demonstrators and ransacked stores in cities across the country.

What's easy to get lost are peaceful protesters concerned about police treatment of minorities — the raw wound reopened by George Floyd's death.

Floyd's brother, Terrence, publicly asked Monday for those people outraged by how George died last week after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his brother's neck to make their feelings known peacefully.

That's daytime television, however.

When darkness falls and prime-time television begins, earnest activism is replaced by tense scenes of conflict unique in their breadth. Scenes of urban unrest have been visible before in the nation's history — the 1968 riots were more frightening and deadly — but not in so many cities at the same time, with so many cameras to observe.