Jacob Blake’s Father Denies That Trump Spoke With Their Family Pastor
President Donald Trump is being accused of lying on the family of Jacob Blake. Trump plans to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, September 1 to access the damage done by recent riots and discuss community safety. However, despite local officials asking him not to come, Trump will make the trip to Kenosha anyway but has said he will not meet with the family of Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old who was shot seven times by police.
Trump said in a press conference, "Well, I spoke to the (family's) pastor ... and I thought it would be better not to do anything where there were lawyers involved. They wanted me to speak. They wanted to have lawyers involved and I thought that was inappropriate, so I didn't do that. But I did speak with the pastor of the family.”
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He claimed he had "a great talk" with the pastor and added, "I may at some point do that, but they did have a lawyer that wanted to be on the phone and I said no. That's inappropriate, but I did just give my best regards."
Jacob Blake’s father denied that Trump talked to a family pastor, telling CNN on August 31, “We don’t have a family pastor. I don’t know who he talked to. I don’t care who he talked to.”
As for Trump refusing to meet because of lawyers, Benjamin Crump, the family attorney, also explained on CNN it was routine for his clients to have legal counsel when they spoke to someone in government, including Barack Obama during his presidency and former Vice President Joe Biden.
White House senior communications adviser Ben Williamson cleaned up the “family pastor” comment by tweeting, ”The President was referring to the pastor of Julia Jackson—Jacob Blake's mother.”
A viral video from August 23 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, showed Blake walking towards his vehicle as officers had their guns drawn on him. An officer began shooting at Blake multiple times as soon as he entered the car. He was shot in front of three of his sons.
He had reportedly been trying to break up a fight between two women when the police were called to the scene.The officers involved in Blake’s shooting have been placed on administrative leave and the incident is being turned over to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation.
According to CNN, the officer who shot Blake has been identified as Rusten Sheskey. He has been with the Kenosha police department for seven years.
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