The cowering president and his men are playing defense. It's not working.

Jennifer Rubin

June 3, 2020

The debacle that unfolded Monday — the tear-gassing of peaceful protesters, the debasement of St. John’s Episcopal Church, the wholly inappropriate participation of the defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the goose step across Lafayette Square — turned out to be President Trump’s way of trying to compensate for reports of his widely mocked trip to the White House bunker in the face of protests Friday evening. Things have turned out so badly that we are now entering the better-to-sound-stupid phase of excuses for the fiasco.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper insisted he did not know where he was going — no time to brief! — when he marched out of the White House with Trump. Or was it, as Esper also claimed, to inspect a bathroom that had been vandalized in the park, which we are supposed to believe warranted his appearance?

snip

Esper is apparently so embarrassed by the incident that he is directly contradicting his boss. At a news conference on Wednesday he insisted, “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act. The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now.” He also promises to investigate the low-flying helicopter that appeared to try to intimidate protesters Monday night. Since Esper has now debased himself both by participating in the stunt and coming up with a pathetic excuse to explain his lack of judgment, it might be time for him to resign.

“Inspection” now seems to be the excuse of choice. Trump claims, ludicrously, that he had gone down to the bunker “more for an inspection.” ”I went down during the day, and I was there for a tiny period of time," he claimed, adding, "There was never a problem. We never had a problem. Nobody ever came close to giving us a problem.” It’s true he was never endangered, but the inspection excuse, even for Trump, is among the lamest to date and only makes him look weaker and more desperate.

snip

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/03/cowering-president-his-men-are-playing-defense-its-not-working/