Biden campaign says Trump rhetoric on policing will lead to ‘less safe America’

Julia Johnson November 21, 12:40 PM November 21, 12:53 PM Video Embed

EXCLUSIVE — President Joe Biden‘s 2024 reelection campaign is targeting former President Donald Trump Tuesday over his rhetoric on policing, arguing to voters his policy prescriptions would lead to “a less safe America.”

Tuesday’s installment of the campaign’s new “Trump’s America in 2025” series, provided exclusively to the Washington Examiner, points to past policies Trump has touted such as “stop and frisk.” It also hits the former president over his proposed cuts to community policing programs while simultaneously criticizing the “defund the police” movement.

BIDEN’S BIRTHDAY REMINDS VOTERS ‘BUBBLE WRAP’ PLAN TO PROTECT HIM IS IN FULL SWING

Trump took a hard line on policing during his first term in office, casting himself as a “law and order” president in the face of rising crime and racial justice protests. He has called for drug dealers to receive the death penalty and even suggested that police be empowered to shoot shoplifters on the spot.

The Biden campaign has seized on this rhetoric to argue that Trump’s proposed solutions to crime would actually leave the country less safe.

In particular, it highlighted Trump’s past support for “stop and frisk,” a controversial policing tactic that has faced criticism for the potential of racial bias and an undue violation of privacy. In 2018, Trump claimed, ″Stop and frisk works and it was meant for problems like Chicago.”

Biden’s team says such a policy would amount to police harassing citizens on the street.

On several occasions, Trump has also signaled his support for arming teachers with firearms as a way to protect students in the event of a mass shooting. The idea has been supported by Republican politicians as a potential deterrent but has been categorically opposed by Democratic politicians.

Biden’s reelection team says such a policy would make America’s classrooms less safe.

“Political violence, harassing citizens in their own neighborhoods, gunning down Americans at will, flooding classrooms with more guns. That’s what Donald Trump is promising if he’s elected president again. He’s proudly campaigning on a platform of fear, division and violence. He’s betting that a scared and divided nation is how he wins this election. It didn’t work in 2020, and it won’t work this time either,” Biden campaign spokesman Seth Schuster said in a statement.

The Biden campaign is at the same time attempting to portray Trump as weak on law enforcement, highlighting his administration’s proposal to disband the Community Relations Service and Community Oriented Policing Services and move their duties to other parts of the Justice Department. The administration at the time defended the proposal as a way to “improve efficiency,” but the Biden campaign is calling it part of a “dangerous MAGA agenda to defund law enforcement.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Trump’s campaign did not provide comment to the Washington Examiner.

The Biden campaign has already hit the former president over his expected policies on abortion and immigration in a potential 2025 administration as it ramps up attacks on the likely Republican nominee.

NewsRead More