Attorney General William Barr said he doesn’t believe “there are two justice systems” in the U.S. and added police shootings of Black men aren’t racially motivated or as common as public demonstrations have made them seem.
“The narrative that the police are in some epidemic of shooting unarmed Black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that’s based on race,” Barr said in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”
“I think there are some situations where statistics would suggest that they are treated differently,” the attorney general said. “But I don’t think that that’s necessarily racism.”
President Donald Trump visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, earlier this week, the site of more demonstrations in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Former Vice President Joe Biden is making his first trip to Wisconsin on Thursday and plans to meet with the family of Blake, who remains hospitalized after being shot seven times in the back by a white police officer as authorities tried to arrest him.
Biden also plans a community discussion with business figures, civic leaders and law enforcement officials. A curfew that was in place in Kenosha for more than a week was lifted Wednesday. Biden is making his first campaign stop in Wisconsin in more than two years.
In the interview, Barr also addressed Trump’s assertion that Antifa “thugs” are stirring protests across the nation.
“They are flying around the country, we know people who are flying around the country, we know where they’re going, we see some of the purchases they’re making before the riots of weapons to use in those riots,” Barr said.
“I’ve talked to every police chief in every city where there’s been major violence, and they all have identified Antifa as the ramrod for the violence,” he said.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Trump said protests in Washington during the Republican National Convention were orchestrated by unspecified forces.
“We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that,” said Trump, adding the matter is under investigation.
Vice President Mike Pence was asked in an interview Tuesday evening to explain what the president was talking about.
“Well, I think what the president’s referring to is actually what we heard in many of the cities. I know in Detroit there were a large number of arrests several weeks ago, and the vast majority of people were from out of state. The same thing occurred in arrests that took place in recent cities,” Pence said on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
“Look, there’s something going on here, where the radical left — these anarchists and Antifa — are moving people around the country, and it’s one of the reasons that the Justice Department is looking into where is the funding for this coming from? ... We’re vigorously investigating where this is being organized from,” Pence said.
Pence said during recent rioting in the nation’s capital, the administration “heard some organization was pre-positioning assets and resources” around the city.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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