Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse sparred with a Trump administration official Wednesday over the president’s claim that vandals caused a liner to fail at the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington.
The Rhode Island Democrat asked whether Park Police were justified in making several arrests at the pool in recent days as the White House faced increasing scrutiny over the renovation’s failures.
Following a $15 million revamp, the pool sprouted a severe algae bloom. During treatments to kill the algae, the pool’s liner began to surface, challenging the White House plan to have the renovation complete before the Independence Day celebrations on the National Mall.
“There’s nothing about touching the reflecting pool or picking up a piece of floating, peeling paint that amounts to vandalism,” Whitehouse said. “When people visiting the reflecting pool are being arrested, handcuffed, and dragged away by your police officers. You’d like to think that they have proper probable cause.”
