PROTESTS: “To counter criticism of his Monday photo op outside St. John’s Church, President Donald Trump and his allies have seized on news reports that police used ‘tear gas’ to clear what appeared to be peaceful protesters so he could make his dramatic walkover from the White House, branding them ‘fake news.’
‘They didn’t use tear gas,’ President Trump told Fox News Radio on Wednesday…
But the U.S. Park Police, while saying in a statement Tuesday that ‘no tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners to close the area at Lafayette Park,’ also said it had deployed ‘pepper balls’ and ‘smoke canisters.'”
-Libby Cathey, “Trump calls tear gas reports ‘fake news,’ but protesters’ eyes burned just the same,” abcnews.com, June 4, 2020