Top Republican senators defend Trump's church photo-op after peaceful protesters cleared out

Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the GOP leadership team, said the protesters had to be cleared out "for security purposes" since Trump was "walking over to the church" and they were asked to clear "but refused to do so."

"So obviously, it was a necessary security measure," Cornyn told CNN. Cornyn rejected the notion that they were acting peacefully since they can't "ignore what law enforcement officers are telling them to do for the security of the president or anybody else."

Asked if the President should have gone to the church for a photo-op that led to tear gas and other measures to be used on the protesters, Cornyn criticized the media and others who are "never going to find any good or any positive development in anything. So you can characterize it the way you want, but obviously the President is free to go where he wants and to hold up a Bible if he wants," calling it a "civil message."

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the most senior Republican in the Senate, told CNN that peaceful protesters have the right to demonstrate but he didn't know the extent to which the "police might expect violence from some of the people -- maybe 5% of the people -- and that could be a potential problem, the answer would be, it's OK" to clear them out with force.

Grassley defended Trump's move to go to St. John's Church, citing the fire that protesters set to the church's premises the night before.

"We expect leadership from our president and particularly in times like this," Grassley said Tuesday. "And I think that when there was destruction to a church or any other historical thing that America would put great confidence in that should not be destroyed, I think a president ought to bring attention to that terrorist activity, and go there and do like what he did last night."

Asked about the fact that the protesters were acting peacefully, Grassley said: "It's all assumed to be peaceful until someone that's got a terrorist activity or a rioting activity, you don't know that until it happens. So I don't know if they could have known that."

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close ally of Trump's, seemed to question the need for Trump to have a photo-op in front of the church -- and said the events in New York and other cities was "pretty disturbing" and "we need to get a grip on order" to deal with the "underlying issue" that resulted in the death of George Floyd.

"Well, I don't know what the point was," Graham said of the photo-op. "I guess he's trying to say we're reclaiming the church. But the point is that we need to focus on what happened to Mr. Floyd, it's a systematic problem, but you can't do that until you get order."