Donald Trump stopped an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Friday to present the host with evidence that Biden agreed to defund the police as a policy recommendation made by the Biden-Sanders unity task force. He was unable to prove his claim since that was never a recommendation.
“Liberal Democrats have been running cities in this country for decades, why is it so bad right now?” Wallace asked.
“They’ve run them poorly, it was always bad, now they’ve gotten totally out of control and it’s really because they want to defund the police and Biden wants to defund the police,” Trump said.
“Sir he does not,” Wallace interjected.
“Look, he signed a charter with Bernie Sanders,” Trump continued.
“And it says nothing about defunding the police,” Wallace insisted
“Oh really? It says abolish. It says –let’s go. Get me the charter, please,” Trump said interrupting the interview.
Wallace said Trump sent a staffer to get the highlights of the proposal signed by the Biden and Sanders team. He went through it but was unable to find any evidence that Biden wants to defund the police.
Not the first time
This is not the first time Trump told this particular lie, hell it’s not even the first time this week. During his rambling speech in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, he claimed the Biden-Sanders unity task force wants to “abolish our police departments.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Biden himself said he does not support defunding the police and actually proposed more funding to police departments—$300 million “to implement meaningful reforms, and to condition other federal dollars on completing those reforms.”
As for the unity task force, they propose, stricter standards on the use of force, a ban on chokeholds, an end to racial profiling, and stopping the transfer of military equipment to police departments. Also, federal funding for a new civilian corps of “unarmed first responders such as social workers, EMTs, and trained mental health professionals, who can handle nonviolent emergencies” so that police can focus on violent crimes, according to CNN.
A far cry from defunding and abolishing police departments.
