During a one-on-one town hall with swing state voters in Pennsylvania and ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, President Donald Trump went to bat for law enforcement officers across the nation, saying police need to be given "the respect they deserve."
"If you look at our police, they do a phenomenal job. You'll have people choke, make mistakes, and it happens. They happen where they have to make a fast decision and some bad things happen. And you also have bad apples," the president explained. "But you have 99 percent great people. I know the police forces very well. I think almost every one of them, if you look, I've been endorsed by so many of them."
"These are great people. If you're going to stop crime we have to give the respect back to the police, that they deserve. They've done a fantastic job in so many locations," Trump said. "But then bad things happen."
Trump pointed to Democrat-run cities as a problem. One of the cities he cited as an example was New York City, which had a relatively low crime rate under then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. When Mayor Michael Bloomberg came in he began cutting funding to the police, something Trump believes is part of the problem.
"The city was safe and then all of a sudden we have a mayor who starts cutting the police force and crime is up 100 percent, 150 percent and I saw one form of crime up 300 percent," he said. "I think it's very important, whether you talk Seattle – they have very good police but they're not allowed to do their job – you have to allow the police to do their job."
The president said various incidents that have spurred riots across the country were "very terrible"
"In Democrat, usually liberal Democrat-run cities, we have tremendous problems. The top 10 most unsafe cities are run by Democrats," Trump explained. "You go into the top 25 and 35, almost every one of them is run by Democrats."
"No cash bail, just weak policies on crime," are the problem, the president said. "We have to give the police the respect they deserve and we have to give them their mojo."
Trump reminded the voter that over the weekend two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies were ambushed and shot at point blank range for no reason. Not to mention Black Lives Matter rioters showed up to the hospital hoping the officers would die.
President @realDonaldTrump: If you’re going to stop crime, you need to respect the police#TrumpTownHall pic.twitter.com/fmdtwQxd8x
— Team Trump (Text VOTE to 88022) (@TeamTrump) September 16, 2020