The Biden campaign spotlighted in recent days a major discrepancy in some of Donald Trump’s public commentary.
Trump recently attended a wake in New York for an officer with New York City’s police department who was killed in the line of duty, and surrounding his participation in the memorials, Trump wheeled out familiar complaints about supposed breakdowns in “law and order.” Trump has specifically used such claims in baseless attacks on migrants, characterizing — without basis — the groups as bringing waves of crime. But the thing is, Trump has repeatedly proposed pardons for Capitol riot defendants if he regains the White House, even pledging to prioritize the release of Capitol riot detainees if he’s president again.
A rapid response team associated with the Biden campaign posted a comparison of Trump’s remarks on X, formerly called Twitter.
“Left: Trump just now saying there is a “really a lack of respect for law and order,”” the campaign team wrote, with accompanying clips. “Right: Trump promising to pardon violent criminal MAGA insurrectionists who maced, assaulted, and crushed police officers.”
Trump has spoken about pardons repeatedly, and in the meantime, he characterizes detainees facing criminal consequences for alleged or confirmed actions that day as “hostages.”
“It’s outrageous, and it’s disgusting,” former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney said in an interview in recent months, discussing the “hostages” language. “And if you go and you look at what individuals have been convicted for who are incarcerated, you’ll find, you know, extensively, these are people who were involved in violence against police officers in the assault on the Capitol. And it is really – it’s disgraceful for Donald Trump to be saying what he’s saying.”
Trump’s rhetoric lambasting the current state of the country without him as president is sweeping. In connection with politically convenient but baseless claims of extensive crime, his corner of the GOP claims the U.S. is facing an “invasion” over the southern border by migrants. In any reasonable understanding of that concept, there’s no “invasion” happening.
Left: Trump just now saying there is a “really a lack of respect for law and order”
Right: Trump promising to pardon violent criminal MAGA insurrectionists who maced, assaulted, and crushed police officers pic.twitter.com/uzXC1tm1ky
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) March 28, 2024
