WASHINGTON: While speaking from the Rose Garden US President Donald Trump said, what happened last night in Washington DC was a "disgrace" and warned that the curfew tonight will "strictly enforced". He said, "My first and highest duty as president is to defend our great country and the American people. I swore an oath to uphold the laws of our nation and that is what I will do."
Any rulebreakers will be arrested, detained and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, he added.
Organisers of the "terror" will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail, he said, mentioning Antifa.
"As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property."
Trump said he will mobilise all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and wanton destruction of property and protect the rights of law-abiding Americans.
He said, "We are ending the riots and lawlessness that have spread throughout the country." "All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd," says Trump, promising "he will not have died in vain".
But Trump says that Floyd's memory must not be "drowned out by an angry mob". "I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protests," he continues.
"But in recent days our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others." "A number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action to safeguard their residents," he adds. (IANS)