Fox News Contributor Marc Thiessen: ‘If They Were Peaceful Protesters, There Would Be No Need to Use Teargas’

Fox News’ contributor claimed on Tuesday that the peaceful protesters who were removed by police using teargas and rubber bullets were not in fact peaceful. Thiessen spoke to America’s Newsroom host Ed Henry and made the claim that police would only have used teargas if the protesters weren’t peaceful.

Henry asked Thiessen about criticism of President Donald Trump’s trip to St. John’s Church. The protesters were cleared for the journey. Henry tried to associate Monday’s protesters with the burning of the church over the weekend.

“It might be different protesters,” Thiessen admitted, before going on to attack the protesters in question.

“There’s all this outrage that President Trump is committing sacrilege by standing in front of the church with a Bible. Maybe the bigger sacrilege is burning the church. That ever occur to anybody?”

“As for clearing out the protesters, I’m sorry. He’s a President of the United States, if he wants to walk across Lafayette Park to St. John’s church, he can do so. That’s the Secret Service’s job.”

“I live in Washington, D.C., and during the Obama administration, the Clinton administration and all the Bush administration’s, when the president wants to go somewhere in a motorcade, what do they do? They clear the streets. I’ve been in motorcade traffic jams a thousand times and if they had to use tear gas, what does that say about the protesters?”

Henry then showed a clip of former Vice President Joe Biden criticizing the response to protests in D.C. Thiessen was asked to respond.

“If they were peaceful protesters, there would be no need to use teargas,” Thiessen said. “It means they resisted. The Secret Service has absolute legal right to clear Lafayette Park in order for the President to go over to St. John’s church. If they had to use teargas and I understand from what Kristin Fisher just reported, they asked three times for them to clear up peacefully and they refused.”

“Those are not peaceful protesters. And it’s not a photo op. The President of the United States is sending a signal that we’re not gonna let people burn down churches, we’re not gonna let people burn down businesses.”

Watch the video above, via Fox News.