Peaceful protestors forcibly removed for Trump's photo-op at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church

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President Trump has been facing backlash after he had peaceful protestors forcibly removed from St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church to take a photo-op. Yahoo FInance’s Jessica Smith joins Yahoo FInance’s The Final Round to discuss.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: All right, let's turn away from markets for a little bit and talk a little bit about what happened last night down in the capital. Jess Smith joins us now from DC for the latest on-- I guess, Jess, you could call it fallout from what we've seen in Lafayette Park last night.

JESSICA SMITH: Yeah, we have been hearing from a lot of Democratic lawmakers, really slamming the president for going from the White House across the street to a church. But in order to do that, law enforcement cleared out protesters before the curfew in DC started. They used tear gas on peaceful protesters to clear the way so the president could cross the street and stand in front of that church, holding the Bible.

So there has been a lot of fallout. We've seen President Trump and Governor Cuomo going back and forth today. We saw President Trump tweet that it was "a bad day for the Cuomo Brothers," so also going after the CNN anchor, Chris Cuomo. He was saying that "New York was lost to looters, thugs, radical left, and all other forms of lowlife scum." Of course, Governor Cuomo had said that it's all just a reality TV show for President Trump. And he said that he pushed peaceful protesters out so he could have a photo op of the church. We are also hearing from Vice-President Joe Biden, who has slammed President Trump for the same thing.

And of course, that is happening as several states vote today. There are primaries in eight states and Washington, DC. And that's really going to be interesting to see how this goes during the pandemic because that is obviously impacting voting. We're seeing several states expand vote-by-mail. So this is kind of a test run for the general election in November, when we see how these states are making sure voters are safe at the polls. They're seeing how vote-by-mail works. So we'll see if any of the lessons, maybe, that these states are learning today will come about again in November.

MYLES UDLAND: Al right, Jessica Smith with the latest down in the capital.