Speaking during a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the Rose Garden Wednesday afternoon, President Trump slammed Democrats for blocking debate on a police reform bill introduced by Republican Senator Tim Scott.
"The Senate Republicans want very much to pass a bill on police reform. We have total cooperation with many different communities including the police community. They want it very much to happen themselves," Trump said. "The Democrats don't want to do it because they want to weaken our police. They want to take away immunity...they want to take away a lot of the strength from our police and law enforcement generally and we can't live with that. We can't live with that, this is a great bill strongly endorsed by Tim Scott who is terrific. He's a terrific man, great Senator, South Carolina and Mitch wants it to happen, I want to see it happen but we won't sacrifice. We won't do anything that's going to hurt our police."
"The Democrats want to weaken very substantially our law enforcement and our police and frankly they want to defund largely, at least largely, there are some who want to defund and abolish our police if you can believe that and we're not letting that happen. So if nothing happens with it, it's one of those things. We have different philosophies," he continued. "They want open borders, they want sanctuary cities, we don't."
Sen. Tim Scott: Senate Democrats did not reject “what is being offered” but “who is offering it.”pic.twitter.com/EhGhnpC1FY
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 24, 2020
Sen. Tim Scott on Senate Democrats blocking police reform bill: "the country has given us the opportunity to lead, to lead, and my friends on the other side just said no."pic.twitter.com/k0LGAhMa8J
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 24, 2020
I offered Democrats the chance to offer AT LEAST 20 amendments. They walked out. #JUSTICEAct
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) June 24, 2020
Trump also pointed out the worst crime-ridden cities are run by Democrats and warned the FBI is investigating hundreds of people for vandalizing federal statues.
"You know we have a record this year on crime, a record positive rating on crime this year, the best. And you hear about certain places like Chicago and you hear about what's going in Detroit and other cities. All Democrat-run. Every one of them is Democrat-run, 20 out of 20. The twenty most dangerous are Democrat-run. We have one city, or two cities in particular, worse than Honduras, worse than Afghanistan and these are cities within the United States. Democrat-run, radical left run," Trump said. "The FBI is investigating hundreds of people throughout the country for what they have done to monuments, statues and even buildings."
"Ten years [in prison], that's a long time to have fun one night," he continued.
An executive order bolstering the Monuments Act is expected by the end of the week.