White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blamed former President Donald Trump for overseeing an increase in violent crime on Thursday after being asked about the killing of an NYPD officer.
During a press gaggle aboard Air Force One, Jean-Pierre noted that Biden had spoken with New York City Mayor Eric Adams to express his condolences over the murder of Officer Jonathan Diller, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop earlier this week.
After being asked if Biden had spoken with Diller’s family, Jean-Pierre said that she had “no private communications to share,” but said that the president was grieving for them. She also fielded a question about Trump’s crime-related attacks on Biden that elicited the shot at Trump:
The president has stood with law enforcement his entire career and continues to stand with them as they put their lives on the line for their communities. Under his leadership, we’ll continue to support police officers and ensure that they have resources they need to continue to do the work, all of the important work that they have to do on behalf of the community.
Look, violent crime, and I’m just gonna be really clear about here, I’m gonna be careful about saying anything about 2024, but violent crime surged under the previous administration, which repeatedly attempted to cut the COPS program. All of their budgets targeted that key funding for the police and congressional Republicans just proposed doing it again, so this is a president, this Biden-Harris administration, have done the polar opposite, taking decisive action from the very beginning to fund the police and achieving a historic reduction in crime under his leadership.
Trump has tried to connect Biden’s perceived weakness on crime and immigration in his campaign to retake the White House.
“They’re pouring into our country and they’re bringing with them tremendous problems,” said Trump last month while discussing migrants showing up at the southern border.
