More than a dozen Chicago police officers broke into Rep. Bobby Rush’s (D-IL) campaign offices in Chicago to lounge on chairs, drink coffee and make popcorn while looters vandalized nearby businesses in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Said Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D): “Looting was going on, buildings were being burned, officers were on the front lines truly taking a beating with bottles and pipes, and these guys were lounging — in a congressman’s office. The utter contempt and disrespect is hard to imagine.”

Added Rush: “They even had the unmitigated gall to go and make coffee for themselves and to pop popcorn — my popcorn — in my microwave while looters were tearing apart businesses within their sight and within their reach.”

“House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), the highest-ranking black member in Congress and a veteran of the civil rights movement, has some advice for today’s protesters and activists: Don’t let the ‘defund the police’ movement hijack the momentum to make serious police reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s death,” the Washington Post reports.

“Clyburn, who grew up in the Jim Crow South and has been a civil rights advocate since he was 12 years old, urged activists calling to overhaul policing and end systemic racism find a clearer and more united message.”

Said Clyburn: “When you allow people to use incendiary terms, we create a climate within which we can’t get much done.”

Politico: “The early divide suggests a partisan deadlock is quite possible despite a surge in support for reform after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota. President Trump is preparing executive actions to curb police misconduct and is likely to back Scott’s bill. But Democrats have major sway over what is doable in Congress, with control of the House and an effective veto in the Senate with the power of the filibuster.”

“While Democrats are under pressure from their base to deliver, they also may decide against settling for a watered-down version of their priorities. Democrats are also staring at an election season that could give them both the Senate and the White House — and with those prizes would come the possibility of advancing more sweeping reform.”

Boston Globe: “For 20 years, investigations like those, and the consent decrees that followed, were key to federal efforts to bring more accountability to policing in the United States, especially during the Obama administration. But as the nation reckons again with racism and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Trump administration is all but out of the business of systemic police reform.”

“Since President Trump took office, the Justice Department has sharply curbed its use of investigations and consent decrees, essentially locking those powerful tools in its toolbox. What’s more, the president himself has made multiple public statements that suggest he does not see police accountability as a high priority. And some former Justice Department officials and other criminal justice experts see a connection between the vacuum of accountability at the highest levels of government and the ongoing police violence that has sent Americans cascading into the streets to protest.”

“Congressional Republicans, caught flat-footed by an election-year groundswell of public support for overhauling policing in America to address systemic racism, are struggling to coalesce around a legislative response,” the New York Times reports.

“Having long fashioned themselves as the party of law and order, Republicans have been startled by the speed and extent to which public opinion has shifted under their feet in recent days after the killings of unarmed black Americans by the police and the protests that have followed. The abrupt turn has placed them on the defensive.”

“Adding to their challenge, President Trump has offered only an incendiary response…”

“Minneapolis police initially told the public that George Floyd died after a ‘medical incident during a police interaction.’ The Buffalo, New York, department said a protester ‘tripped and fell.’ Philadelphia police alleged that a college student who suffered a serious head wound had assaulted an officer,” the AP reports.

“All three claims were quickly disproved by videos seen widely on the internet and television, fueling mistrust and embarrassing agencies that made misleading or incomplete statements that painted their actions in a far more favorable light.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was skeptical in a New Yorker interview about the “defund the police” movement.

Said Sanders: “Do I think we should not have police departments in America? No, I don’t. There’s no city in the world that does not have police departments. What you need are—I didn’t call for more money for police departments. I called for police departments that have well-educated, well-trained, well-paid professionals. And, too often around this country right now, you have police officers who take the job at very low payment, don’t have much education, don’t have much training—and I want to change that.”

He added: “I think we want to redefine what police departments do, give them the support they need to make their jobs better defined. So I do believe that we need well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police departments. Anyone who thinks that we should abolish all police departments in America, I don’t agree.”

President Trump suggested the 75-year old man pushed to the ground by Buffalo police was actually trying to set them up.

Said Trump: “Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment… I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”

Top congressional Democrats are steering clear of the growing calls by activists to “defund the police,” saying they sympathize with the intent behind the movement but are concerned that the rhetoric could undercut efforts to overhaul policing practices nationwide, CNN reports.

Said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): “That’s not the term I would use. But I think it’s important for all of us to listen to the pain and lived experiences of the people who are protesting, who have created a movement for real change… We need to put more resources responding to mental health issues and substance abuse. We need to demilitarize our police forces. There are a lot of things we need to do.”

“Amid a public backlash over the militarized federal response to mass protests, President Trump is seeking to turn the national movement for racial justice into a debate over law and order, presenting Democrats as inflaming chaos in American cities,” the Washington Post reports.

“But as the White House and the president’s reelection campaign begin that messaging, they are already facing difficulty navigating the line between exhibiting toughness and straying into the kind of offensive rhetoric and race-baiting that have often defined Trump’s tenure.”

New York Times: Trump rebuffs protests over systemic racism and calls police “great people.”

Politico: “Top Democrats are carefully — but forcefully — speaking out against growing calls from activists to defund police departments, an idea backed by prominent progressives to dismantle the system that has perpetuated the type of brutality as seen in Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.”

“With the GOP eagerly drawing up their attack ads, senior Democrats are hoping to stifle momentum for the idea before it overshadows their broader reform effort. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are instead pressing ahead with a sweeping bill to crack down on use of force, bolster transparency, and ban certain practices, like chokeholds, while leaving questions of funding or structure to local leaders.”

“Two law enforcement agencies acknowledged Monday that officers patrolling Minneapolis during the height of recent protests knifed the tires of numerous vehicles parked and unoccupied in at least two locations in the midst of the unrest,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Video and photo images posted by Mother Jones show officers in military-style uniforms puncturing tires in the Kmart parking lot at Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue on May 30.

John Oliver: “Our whole show is actually going to be about one thing, and you probably know what, and you probably know why.”

A must-watch episode.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) slams Democrats as they release police reform legislation:

“To the police officers across the country who put on the uniform every day and uphold their oath—THANK YOU. Democrats want to defund you, but Republicans will never turn our backs on you.”

Congressional Democrats unveiled sweeping police reform legislation in response to protests after the killing of George Floyd, the Washington Post reports.

“The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 would ban chokeholds, establish a national database to track police misconduct and prohibit certain no-knock warrants, among a range of steps. Democratic leaders of the House and Senate released the legislation that had been drafted by members of the Congressional Black Caucus.”

A powerful photo shows the most senior Democrats in government kneeling in the Capitol, minutes before introducing the bill.