(POLITICO) -- Washington-area faith leaders on Tuesday fiercely condemned the violent dispersal of peaceful protesters outside the White House to accommodate President Donald Trump’s visit to a nearby church, going so far as to suggest the staged photo opportunity was “antithetical” to the core tenets of Christianity.
That particular rebuke from the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, came after the president threatened the use of military force on Monday evening to quash a nationwide wave of racial unrest if state and local officials refused to activate the National Guard.
As Trump addressed reporters from the Rose Garden, police officers and National Guard units fired rubber bullets, deployed flash bangs and set off tear gas bombs to force protesters from Lafayette Square, on the north side of the White House.
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