Actress and social activist Rose McGowan praised President Donald Trump on Thursday, a day after he urged the Justice Department to dig in and investigate the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis this week.
“Credit to Trump for calling for an immediate investigation into George Floyd’s murder,” McGowan said in a tweet this afternoon. It was shared with her nearly a million followers. “Credit to the Minnesota Mayor Frey for calling for immediate arrests. It’s time for righteous anger to move the mountain of white fear. #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd.”
Trump said on Wednesday “At my request, the FBI and the Department of Justice are already well into an investigation as to the very sad and tragic death in Minnesota of George Floyd.”
“I have asked for this investigation to be expedited and greatly appreciate all of the work done by local law enforcement,” Trump said. “My heart goes out to George’s family and friends. Justice will be served!”
McGowan is an outspoken activist, but one whose opinions have crossed political lines. As Breitbart News noted on Thursday, she has in the past called the Democratic Party and the media “a cult.” She used the same word recently to describe Hollywood. McGowan recently called #MeToo activists hypocrites for failing to support women who've accused leading Dem and presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexual misconduct, even urging him to drop out of the race for the White House.
Her tweet came as some observers have faulted the media and Democrats for exploiting the Floyd case an an effort to align the officers involved with the political right and even damage Trump's standing.
A Minneapolis police officer videotaped on Monday holding Floyd to the ground with his knee during an arrest quickly become the target of false claims on social media that sought to tie him to political agendas and racist ideologies.
Twitter and Facebook posts with hundreds of thousands of views on Wednesday claimed that the officer in question, Derek Chauvin, had been pictured wearing a "Make Whites Great Again" hat and standing onstage at a Donald Trump rally, neither of which turned out to be true, according to wire reports.
The spread of false information was so rampant that the president of the Minneapolis police union set the record straight, telling The Associated Press that none of the officers involved in Monday's incident were at the Trump rally in Minneapolis last October.
One post circulating widely across social media platforms juxtaposed a screenshot of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck with a photo of a man holding a blackberry between his thumb and index finger and wearing a red baseball cap that said "Make Whites Great Again."
The post, shared by prominent figures including the rapper Ice Cube, suggested the two photos featured the same person. But the man in the "Make Whites Great Again" photo was actually Jonathan Lee Riches, a known internet troll. Riches told the AP in a Facebook message that he was the person in the photo. However, he said the image was altered and he was not wearing the hat. He could not provide the original.
A second set of viral posts on Wednesday featured photos of a man smiling onstage at a Donald Trump rally in Minneapolis last October. The posts falsely claimed the photos, which showed a man wearing a "Cops for Trump" shirt and holding up a "Vote Trump" sign, were of Chauvin. According to Minneapolis police union president Lt. Bob Kroll, the photos actually showed Mike Gallagher, the president of the police union in Bloomington, Minnesota.
"Can you put a stop to the false narrative please?" Kroll told the AP. "None of the officers in the incident were near the Trump rally."
Ther Associated Press contributed to this story.
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