On May 19, Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) issued the following statement on Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail’s attack on peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C. on May 16:
I join with all Americans in condemning the violence by President Erdogan’s bodyguards against peaceful protesters outside the Turkish embassy in Washington, DC.
It was disgraceful that the President’s bodyguards beat members of our community who were peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
Those members of the security detail involved in the attacks should be disciplined and the Trump Administration must make it clear to all embassies in the United States that our laws protect protesters and their right to peaceful assembly and free speech.