WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are calling for unity ahead of President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa this weekend.
“I hope he says something powerful and unifying,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said.
That’s what Scott wants to hear from the president this weekend when he returns to the campaign rally stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s President Trump’s first rally in months.
Scott is working with the president on the Republican legislative response to nationwide protests over police brutality and racial injustice.
“He’s encouraged and he’s excited about it,” Scott said.
But North Carolina Democratic Congressman David Price said Friday that unity is not the president’s strong suit.
“I think it’s very, very clear he hasn’t done that,” Price added.
Price said the president did make the right call by moving his rally to Saturday, June 20. It was initially scheduled for Friday, June 19 – which is known as Juneteenth. It marks the day Texas slaves learned they had been freed.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Friday the president’s rally has actually helped educate Americans about Juneteenth.
“I look at the chart on Google searches on Juneteenth and this year they went like this and that’s thanks to President Trump,” McEnany said.
Some in Congress are working to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) is suggesting that his state rename Selma’s Edmund Pettus bridge after Georgia Congressman John Lewis.
“What happened in Selma truly was one of those life-altering events that changed the world,” Jones said. “I think we’re in that moment now, by the way, and I’ve said that.”
Lewis marched in Selma and was attacked by police along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during civil rights unrest in the 1960s.
