During a roundtable event in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, President Donald Trump prevented a pair of Black pastors in the room to speak when they were asked whether they think police violence is a systemic issue.
The two pastors were James Ward and Sharon Ward, who said they were pastors for Julia Jackson, the mother of Jacob Blake. Blake, a Black man, was shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha police officer, sparking demonstrations in the city.
The Wards were the only African Americans seated at the dais for a roundtable on public safety and were the only participants to bring up Blake’s shooting before the President took questions from the press.
When a reporter asked the Wards whether, like other Black community leaders, they believed police violence was a systemic issue, Trump interjected, “I don’t believe that. I think the police do an incredible job and I think you do have some bad apples.”
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He added, “You do have the other situation, too, where they’re under tremendous pressure and they don’t handle it well. They call it choking and it happens.”
The President also seemed to suggest that his personal interactions with police were enough evidence for him to know that police violence was not a systemic issue.
“No, but I don’t believe that at all,” he told the reporter. “I’ve met so many police. I have the endorsement of like, so many, maybe everybody.”
The pastors never got the chance to answer the reporter’s question, including when the reporter attempted to clarify that the question was not directed toward the President. It’s not clear if Trump understood that the question was meant for the pastors.
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