GOP congressional leaders denounce violent riots while Democratic leaders largely mum

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Congress' top two Republicans, are denouncing the protests and riots taking place in cities after the George Floyd death in Minneapolis.

“Generations of heroes have fought and died to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights to voice their anger and engage in peaceful protest. I have championed these liberties my entire career," McConnell said in a statement Friday. "Stealing, burning down buildings, attacking law enforcement officers, or laying siege to police precincts is not speech or protest. It is violent crime that victimizes innocent people."

McCarthy reacted Sunday to the violent protests.

"This is about more than George Floyd. Now is the time to come together and solve deep-seated problems in our communities," he tweeted. "We can only be catalysts for change through nonviolent action—in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rep. John Lewis."

Floyd died May 29 after his arrest by Minneapolis police in which an officer kneeled on his neck for about eight minutes. The incident has sparked six straight days of protests over Floyd's death and the larger issue of police brutality of black Americans.

On Friday, McCarthy wrote, "George Floyd should still be alive today. We can honor his memory by healing our broken communities. By mending racial divides. And by rebuilding America into a more perfect union that we know it should be. Ripping a city—and a country—apart only deepens the wound."

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has not specifically addressed the violent protests and looting in New York City, Washington, D.C., or other cities on social media or his official website.

He was asked Thursday about Floyd's death on CNN and wrote about it on Twitter. 

"It was brutal, it was unnerving, and unfortunately it's hardly an isolated incident," he said. "We cannot turn a blind eye to racism, racial disparities, and injustice."

In addition to looting and setting fires in the nation's capital, protestors defaced the World War II memorial over the weekend. Protestors in Oakland broke into a Mercedes dealership and lit the showroom vehicles on fire. Retail stores have been looted throughout New York City.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. She criticized President Trump's response to the protests but didn't specifically denounce the looting and destruction taking place in America's cities.

"I do think that there's a place for protests at the sign of a knee going into the neck of a person who's not offering resistance, or, even if he were, disproportionate response from the police," she said. "Let's have a look at what really is happening, who is making what – taking what actions. But we should not, we should not ignore the fact that there is a room for peaceful protest in all this."