The Biden campaign released a statement this week blasting the idea that former President Donald Trump — currently the presumptive presidential nominee from Republicans for this year’s elections — really does support police.
Trump has been centering that idea amid his campaign in specific contexts like his recent attendance of a wake for a police officer with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) who was killed in the line of duty. The ex-president relatedly claims that migrants arriving to the United States are bringing waves of crime, something just not substantiated by the facts, no matter the furor of right-wingers’ allegations.
“Donald Trump pretends he cares about violence against police officers, but apparently not the ones who lost their lives after being violently assaulted by his supporters,” the Biden campaign’s condemnation read. “He calls their attackers ‘hostages’ and has promised to release them from prison if he gets reelected. Trump is a fraud, lying about losing the last election to Joe Biden and running a campaign of revenge and retribution all to get power for himself.”
Capitol riot detainees in D.C.’s prisons specifically — a subgroup where Trump’s political corner has already focused — are mostly individuals facing assault cases stemming from the riot, and in turn, most of those cases already resulted in a guilty plea or a criminal conviction. Former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, discussing a news and analysis site’s presentation of the prison population data, said Trump’s threats of what he’d do if returned to power showed him to be “violent.”
“This new chart and @just_security piece tells you exactly how violent Trump is. Trump’s contemplating freeing violent criminals who viciously assaulted law enforcement,” said Weissmann.
Trump also continues advancing the cause that originally drove the Capitol attack: the lies of a stolen presidential election in 2020. Every credible authority weighing in upon the situation has shared the same conclusion: Trump’s claims of systematic misconduct are false.
