Nick Ferrari quizzes Republican chairman who defends Donald Trump over protests

3 June 2020, 10:14 | Updated: 3 June 2020, 14:46

Nick Ferrari quizzes Republican chair who defends Trump over protests

Nick Ferrari presses a former Chairman of the Republican Party over whether Donald Trump was right to order police to tear gas protesters outside the White House.

Thomas Del Beccaro is the former Chairman of the Republican Party in California and told Nick that the President was right to use force to allow him to walk to a local church for a photo call.

To do so, police used tear gas to remove protesters from outside the White House.

And Mr Del Beccaro insisted that law and order is needed to deal with some of the protests. He said: "The President has been tough on this for sure. There are times when he's been pretty rough and tumble on this and I wish everyone, including the President, would speak in a more calming voice about this.

"But at the end of the day, law and order is needed.

"Things are out of control in some areas.

"In America, those symbols are important and it's important that a President is seen doing things instead of being afraid.

"The fact he took that walk and showed America that things can be controlled and law and order is possible was an important symbol - and in many jurisdictions, they're not trying to do that."

Nick insisted: "They used tear gas and flash grenades to move peaceful protesters so the President could make that trip."

Mr Del Beccaro responded: "That's what some reports have said.

"But look, Houston had 60,000 people today, walking with no incidents, including Mr Floyd's family, but that was not covered by CNN or MSNBC. There are lots of good things happening, but there are some very bad things as well."

Nick questioned whether the President's tweet that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" was a good thing or a bad thing.

Mr Del Beccaro admitted: "I wouldn't have done it."

It's a fascinating conversation - watch it at the top of the page.