Response to Criticism of President Trump from Campaign Staff

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I want to ask you since you are the head of strategic communications, was it a good idea for the president to legitimize, condone, ask for, whatever the correct term is, the dispersal of peaceful protesters outside the White House? And then, for him to proceed to a photo-op at a church? It has been roundly condemned from members of his own support base, from members of the church base that is his. Can you just tell me what you think of that to begin with?

MARC LOTTER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020: Well, I think first and foremost we have to trust in the actions of the United States Secret Service, that of the U.S. Park Police and the many other law enforcement agencies that were expanding the perimeter around the White House as we saw from the previous night. You had protesters, you had rioters setting fires to buildings in Lafayette Square and also to historic St. John’s church. Those were actions that could not be allowed to repeat themselves the next night and while the curfew in D.C. had been moved hours earlier. What you saw from the Park Police and what they have said was that they were extending the perimeter so that way if things did turn into a violent mess later that evening that you had a broader perimeter around, A, some of those historic structures but also around the White House itself.