George Floyd protests: Virginia refuses to send national guard troops to DC, while NYC extends curfew

U.S. cities are grappling with the aftermath of another night of protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. Peaceful protests against police brutality and systemic racism once again turned destructive overnight, with tensions flaring between law enforcement and demonstrators. 

State and local officials are ramping up efforts to ease the unrest, adding to police forces and imposing earlier curfews on major cities. New York City, for one, has already announced its 8 p.m. curfew will remain in place for the rest of the week. Still, President Donald Trump is calling for harsher government reaction, threatening late Monday to deploy the U.S. military to establish control in cities and tweeting throughout the morning on Tuesday calling for order. 

Meanwhile businesses and brands are trying to strike a balance between empathy and performance in public statements about racism, while activists and black business leaders call for action and systemic change. 

This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the demonstrations gripping the U.S. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks. 

12:57 p.m. ET — Countless companies have come out publicly in recent days to condemn racism and police brutality or to reflect how they’re responding following the death of George Floyd

And while some responses have been well-received, others have fallen flat for appearing hypocritical or opportunistic.

“People want to feel that black lives matter to brands before we get to the streets. Before something is burning. Before we are marching for our lives,” God-is Rivera, the global director of culture and community at Twitter, told CNBC. “I think it’s really important that brands first have to really think about, have they built equity with this community?” —Megan Graham

12:48 p.m. ET — Infectious disease experts and doctors fear protests will spur more Covid-19 infections and potentially make a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall much worse. However, they also say it’s difficult to balance the desire to protest injustice against the risk of infection.

While protesters cannot completely eliminate the risk of the coronavirus, there are things they can do to decrease the spread or chance of getting it, according to interviews with a dozen epidemiologists, doctors and infectious disease specialists. —Berkeley Lovelace Jr. 

12:37 p.m. ET — President Donald Trump gave credit to himself for “Domination” and “overwhelming force” that he said kept relative calm in Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis on Monday night after continued protests about George Floyd’s death in police custody.

“D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination. Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!),” he wrote in a Twitter post on Tuesday morning.

Trump also lashed out at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his brother Chris Cuomo, an anchorman on CNN, whom the president insultingly called “Fredo,” a reference to a hapless character in the “The Godfather” saga.

“Yesterday was a bad day for the Cuomo Brothers. New York was lost to the looters, thugs, Radical Left, and all others forms of Lowlife & Scum,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “The Governor refuses to accept my offer of a dominating National Guard. NYC was ripped to pieces. Likewise, Fredo’s ratings are down 50%!”

Trump’s taunt came a day after police swept clear the area in front of the White House, using force to clear protesters so that the president could stage a photo opportunity at the nearby St. John’s Episcopal Chapel, where he posed for cameras while holding a bible. —Dan Mangan

12:28 p.m. ET — Instagram users are taking part in Blackout Tuesday and posting images of black squares in solidarity with black victims of police violence. As of 11:45 a.m. ET, more than 14.6 million Instagram posts used the hashtag #BlackoutTuesday.

The online movement first started in the music industry, when executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang requested that fellow leaders pause business and take a stand against racism. Platforms, such as Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music, joined the movement and are using their apps to promote black artists.

The movement has since spread to brands, organizations and individuals, who are using Instagram to post only a black square Tuesday to show a virtual moment of silence. Others are choosing to continue posting, but will only amplify voices of the black community.

The movement also hit a snag in the morning as people used hashtags meant for Black Lives Matter, which usually is related to global protests and donations, along with their black squares. That caused the usual #BLM and #BlackLivesMatter pages to be flooded with simple squares rather than information and resources, leading several to call out the problem. —Jessica Bursztynsky

12:15 p.m. ET — A curfew on New York City will continue through the end of the week as heated protests over the death of George Floyd continue to shake the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.

The curfews will take effect at 8 p.m. ET each evening and will be lifted at 5 a.m. the following morning, de Blasio said at a press briefing. The extension comes as massive protests in the city over Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer erupted into violence and looting once again Monday night. New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at the briefing that nearly 700 arrests were made on Monday night.

“We will not tolerate violence of any kind. We will not tolerate attacks on police officers. We will not tolerate hatred being created,” de Blasio said. “An attack on police officers is an attack on all of us. Pure and simple.” —Kevin Breuninger

11:55 a.m. ET — Former Vice President Joe Biden slammed President Donald Trump’s handling of the multiple crises plaguing the country, including the protests against police brutality and the coronavirus pandemic. Biden also laid out his own plan for police reform, and he pressed Congress to pass legislation that would prohibit the use of chokeholds by police.

Biden invoked Floyd’s memory on Tuesday by repeating his last words. “‘I can’t breathe.’ George Floyd’s last words,” said Biden. “But they didn’t die with him. They’re still being heard. They’re echoing across this nation.”

“They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment – with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the black and minority communities,” he added.

Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, has previously said that he decided to run for the White House after hearing Trump say there were “very fine people on both sides” of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in 2017. —Amanda Macias, Christina Wilkie

11:50 a.m. ET — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam rejected a request from Secretary of Defence Mark Esper to send up to 5,000 of the state’s Army National Guard to Washington, D.C., the Associated Press reported.

The request was part of a show of force spearheaded by the Trump administration to respond to violent civil protests and looting, Northam’s chief of staff, Clark Mercer, told AP.

President Donald Trump’s comments to governors in a phone call Monday, in which he said most governors were “weak” and needed to “dominate” the streets, played a role in the decision.

“The president’s remarks to the governors heightened our concerns about how the guard would be used,” Mercer told AP. —Terri Cullen

10:32 a.m. ET — My wife and I, like most Americans, were horrified by the killing of George Floyd last week and moved by the peaceful protests against racial injustice that followed. As white people rising a black baby girl, we need to prepare our daughter for a world where the deck can be stacked against minorities.

We don’t pretend to know what it’s like to be black, but we know we want to be part of the solution to create a more inclusive and just society. When we need help, we’re going to ask for it from our black friends, the black community and our families. We hope our daughter, in time, will not have to endure the kind of racism that exists today, more than a half century since the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

After a weekend of violent unrest, I held my baby girl and told her I loved her and that’s she’s a ray of hope who someday can be part of the changes we hope to see in America. But I assured her that for now her job is to be the beautiful, charismatic, and healthy little girl that brings such joy to our lives. Read my entire commentary here. —Matthew J. Belvedere

9:54 a.m. ET — Leaders of three civil rights groups said they were “disappointed and stunned” after a call with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg about the company’s decisions to maintain posts by President Donald Trump.

The executives participated in a Zoom call Monday with leaders of Color of Change, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“We are disappointed and stunned by Mark’s incomprehensible explanations for allowing the Trump posts to remain up,” wrote the leaders, Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference and Sherrilyn Ifill of LDF. “He did not demonstrate understanding of historic or modern-day voter suppression and he refuses to acknowledge how Facebook is facilitating Trump’s call for violence against protesters. Mark is setting a very dangerous precedent for other voices who would say similar harmful things on Facebook.”

Trump addressed recent protests over the killing of George Floyd while in police custody, in a post on both Twitter and Facebook Friday, saying, “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter flagged the tweet with a warning that it violates the company’s rules about “glorifying violence,” but Facebook took no action on the post.

Hundreds of Facebook employees took part in a “virtual walkout” Monday in a rare show of opposition within the company. The employees said on social media that they were ashamed and upset by their employers’ decision to leave Trump’s post untouched.

“We’re grateful that leaders in the civil rights community took the time to share candid, honest feedback with Mark and Sheryl. It is an important moment to listen, and we look forward to continuing these conversations,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. —Lauren Feiner

9:47 a.m. ET — Outgoing AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told CNBC that chief executives across the U.S. need to advocate for racial justice following the killing of George Floyd. Stephenson specifically pointed toward law enforcement policies that allow racial profiling, saying those must be stopped.

“All of us CEOs have large African-American employee bodies. We owe it to them to make sure that we’re speaking to this, that we’re asking our policymakers to step up, that we’re asking our political leaders to step up and recognize and just say it: We’ve got a problem,” Stephenson said in a “Squawk Box” interview. “We have a big problem and it needs to be dealt with.” —Jessica Bursztynsky

9:13 a.m. ET — In a message to employees and the public, Home Depot CEO Craig Menear spoke out against “the senseless killing” of unarmed black men and women, including George Floyd.

“We cannot ignore that their deaths are part of a pattern of racism and reflect the harsh reality that as a nation we are much too far from fulfilling the promise of equal justice for all,” he wrote. “We must stand with all who are committed to change that will bring us closer to realizing an end to discrimination and hatred.”

Menear said the retailer will donate $1 million to Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization. He said he is also working with employees to plan internal town halls “to share our experiences and create better understanding among us all.” —Melissa Repko

9:09 a.m. ET — General Motors CEO and Chairman Mary Barra is “impatient and disgusted” following the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans, she said in messages to employees, suppliers and dealers this week. Barra said she is commissioning an “inclusion advisory board” of both internal and external leaders, which she will chair.

“Putting this in writing is not enough,” she wrote. “In addition to affirming the above principles, we are taking immediate action.” Barra said we need to stop asking why and start asking what we can “do – individually and collectively – to drive change … meaningful, deliberate change. As one of the largest global companies, there is much we can do.”

Barra’s message, according to a GM spokesman, was posted on the company’s internal intranet Sunday. It was then distributed to thousands of GM dealers and suppliers on Monday. —Michael Wayland

9:02 a.m. ET — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday proposed a reform agenda that prohibits law enforcement officers from using excessive force and chokeholds, which New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio years ago said he’d veto.

“I said from day one, I share the outrage and I stand with the protestors, [sic]. You look at that video of the killing of an unarmed man, Mr. Floyd, it is horrendous,” Cuomo said during a press briefing with reporters, referencing the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, last week in Minneapolis.

“So, yes, we should be outraged,” he added. “And yes, there’s a bigger point to make. It is abuse by police. But it’s something worse. It is racism. It is discrimination. It is fundamental inequality and injustice.” —Yelena Dzhanova

7:47 a.m. ET — Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CEO and President Jim Hackett sent a rather open letter to employees Monday regarding the “tragic killing of George Floyd” as well as America’s ongoing “systematic racism.”

Ford joins other companies such as Apple and Snap in sending messages to employees regarding the death of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer last week, which has sparked protests and riots across the country.

“While we would like to say that racism has no place in our society, we know that systemic racism still exists despite the progress that has been made,” the letter said. “We cannot turn a blind eye to it or accept some sense of ‘order’ that’s based on oppression.”

The message was sent Monday afternoon before President Donald Trump threatened to bring in the military if states and cities fail to bring an end to protests and riots across the country following Floyd’s death.

Ford’s message also addressed the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on black communities, citing “the legacy of economic disparities in our own home city of Detroit.” —Michael Wayland

Read CNBC’s previous coverage of the nationwide demonstrations: New York City imposes earlier curfew after violent protests, Trump threatens military action.