Former President Donald Trump was at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan on Tuesday, speaking to supporters about his policies regarding law enforcement and criminal justice.
Trump spoke for nearly an hour, discussing his administration’s history of supporting law enforcement and goals to combat violent crime in the United States.
He said his government would make “record investments in the recruitment, retention and training of police officers.”
“I will ensure law, order, security and peace and protect those who protect us,” he said.
Trump’s campaign and surrogates are banking on the message that Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are not cracking down on crime enough. Before Trump’s comments on Tuesday, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds said Harris’ policies had “created a hub where criminals can be arrested and put right back on the street.”
Trump claimed that as vice president, Harris was part of an administration that saw a 43 percent increase in violent crime.
He has repeatedly used a Justice Department report on crime victims as the basis for this figure. Its results differ from those of the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, which is commonly used as a general measure of crime nationwide. The Justice Department writes that “the NIBRS and NCVS estimates may differ in a given year because the two data sets use different methods to measure an overlapping but not identical set of crimes.”
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Further campaign stops planned
Trump is traveling across the United States this week to highlight key issues in his campaign. He spoke about jobs and energy policy during a visit to a factory in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday. He will speak about national security in North Carolina on Wednesday and immigration in Arizona on Thursday.
