Trump Says GOP Won’t Allow Police Weakened as Reform Bill Stalls
Trump Says GOP Won’t Allow Police Weakened as Reform Bill Stalls
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump accused Democrats of voting down a GOP police reform bill because they wanted to cripple law enforcement, as he continued to side with police amid protests over misconduct and racism.
“They want to weaken the police,” Trump said of Democrats Wednesday during a press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House. “And we can’t live with that.”
Trump spoke hours after Senate Democrats voted to block legislation by Tim Scott -- the South Carolina Republican who is the GOP’s lone Black member in the upper chamber -- that would limit the use of chokeholds and encourage police departments to require body cameras. The legislative effort came after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died at the hands of police in Minneapolis, prompting a nationwide protests over racial inequality.
Democratic leaders said the Scott bill fell short of the changes needed after the Floyd killing. They complained the measure included no new federal restrictions on the use of lethal force or changes to the qualified immunity doctrine that limits lawsuits against police officers. Those elements are included in a House bill expected to pass on Thursday.
Trump said some Democrat-run cities were “worse than Honduras, worse than Afghanistan” and pledged Republicans would not support legislation “that’s going to hurt our police.” He criticized the opposition party as driven by some activists who have called for abolishing police departments and rededicating resources to other public services.
“They want to take away a lot of the strength from our police and law enforcement generally,” Trump said.
Monument Order
Trump also promised a “a very strong executive order” by the end of the week to “consolidate various things” related to protecting federal monuments. Protesters across the country have targeted statues of controversial historical figures amid a national reckoning over race.
Trump instructed officials earlier this week to arrest vandals on federal property after demonstrators attempted to pull down a statue of Andrew Jackson from a park across from the White House. As president, Jackson oversaw the removal of American Indian tribes from their native lands.
Last week, demonstrators pulled down a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike in Washington’s Judiciary Square neighborhood. In Richmond, a series of statues honoring Confederate generals on the city’s iconic Monument Avenue have been vandalized.
In 2017, violence broke out when a group of white supremacists held a rally in Charlottesville to protest the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a local park. Trump came under substantial bipartisan criticism for defending some of the individuals protesting the monument’s removal as “good people” and blaming violence on “both sides” of the clash.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.