Rep. Green: I hope Trump will not allow rebel flags at Tulsa rally
Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green weighs in ahead of President Trump's address on police reform and the economy.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, a persistent critic of President Trump, told "Your World" Thursday that he is willing to work with the White House on issues related to race relations.
"This is from my heart," Green told host Neil Cavuto. "I am willing to forgive the president, but he's never asked for forgiveness -- and there are many things he should atone for, in my opinion. By the way, there are things that I should atone for too. But it would help me if he would talk about institutionalized racism, systemic racism.
"If he would acknowledge that it exists and then acknowledge it exists in some police departments in this country -- not all police are bad, not all protesters are bad. There are some people who protest and do dastardly things, but that doesn’t mean that we would paint all protesters with a dastardly brush and so we shouldn't paint all police officers the same."
Green added that corrupt or racist police officers should be identified and punished, and claimed some officers "disrespect" people of color "because they know that black people are the weakest link in the societal chain -- and they understand that they don’t get the same blowback if they abuse the black person that they would get if they abused a white person."
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The congressman, best known for repeatedly introducing resolutions calling for Trump's impeachment, added that the president has a great opportunity to "appeal to the nation for civility."
"We need now, reconciliation," Green said. "We survived lawful segregation but we didn’t reconcile. It’s time for reconciliation, it’s time for us to come to terms with each other. Black and white in this country should come to terms.
"We need a Department of Reconciliation at the Cabinet level just as we have a secretary of defense, secretary of labor. And that person’s job would be ... to do what can be done to end racism and discrimination. Let’s move forward and get this behind us."
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