Trying to counter DNC, Trump attacks Harris on ‘crime and safety’ alongside law enforcement

(HOWELL, Mich.) — Former President Donald Trump continued his Democratic National Convention counterprogramming week in Howell, Michigan, on Tuesday, for a speech that was supposed to be dedicated to crime and safety, but one in which he repeatedly criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ record as a prosecutor while once again reaffirming his support for police.

“We’re here today to talk about how we are going to stop the Kamala crime wave that is going on at levels that nobody has ever seen before. And she is, as you know, the most radical left person ever even thought of for high office, certainly for the office of president. People don’t know the real Kamala, but I do,” said Trump as law enforcement officials stood behind him.

However, once again, an unfocused Trump failed to advocate for certain, specific policy reforms he was supposed to call for during his remarks.

According to speech experts obtained by ABC News before Trump delivered his remarks, the former president was supposed to call for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers, advocate for stop-and-frisk policies, as well as making “it a felony for any medical professional to perform surgery on a minor without parental consent.”

Throughout his remarks, without providing evidence, Trump painted a dangerous picture of what America would look like should the Harris-Walz ticket be elected whereas he would create a “crime-free America,” he argued.

“Mothers will no longer be losing their children because of weak, liberal policies and politicians that have given up on securing a crime free America. We want a crime-free America. We’re going to stop violent crime in the United States. And it’s people like this that can do the job better than anybody. They do the job justly and fairly,” said Trump praising the law enforcement officials nearby.

As Trump ticked through crime statistics, the FBI says that, for the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period of 2023, violent crime decreased by 15.2 %. Murder decreased by 26.4%, rape decreased by 25.7%, robbery decreased by 17.8%, and aggravated assault decreased by 12.5%.

The former president accused Harris of not trying to fight crime in the United States, latching on to previous comments she made about police funding to argue that, as president, she would work to “defund the police.”

“She wants to destroy policemen in general, and they ruin your lives, your jobs, and they ruin everything you’ve lived for, everything you’ve felt that you want to make great,” Trump said talking to the sheriffs. “You want to make our country great. When I’m president of the United States again, we will never even think about or mention the words defund the police.”

In a series of interviews conducted in the midst of widespread demonstrations around the nation following the murder of George Floyd where there was an uptick in demands for police reform, Harris occasionally expressed support for some of the principles underlying the “defund the police” movement and advocated for a “reimagining” of policing nationwide.

Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer previously told ABC News Harris has “supported increased funding to keep our communities safe and hold convicted felons like Trump accountable — which is why America is currently seeing a near 50-year low in violent crime.”

Trump also highlighted Harris’s support of abolishing cash bail, arguing it led to an uptick in crime before drawing a connection between the protestors arrested during the murder of George Floud and then Jan 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a Trump-led mob.

“When the violent mobs of looters and anarchists tried to burn down Minneapolis in 2020, Kamala Harris raised money for bail to bail out the arsonists and the rioters and the killers. People were killed. Many people were killed,” said Trump.

“Compare that to J6, nobody was killed. Nobody was killed. They weren’t fires set. They burned down the city. They were burning down Minneapolis. And she went out. And not only did she work a little bit with them, she worked a lot with them. She worked to get them out and to make them– to set them free,” Trump falsely claimed, as people were killed on Jan 6.

As protests broke out in Minnesota at the time, Harris asked her backers to “chip in” to a bail fund to support anyone arrested after bond on the social networking platform Twitter, which is now known as X, a post that Republican have repeatedly cited in their attacks.

On Tuesday, Trump promised to “make a record investment in hiring, retention, and training of police officers,” going on to accuse Democrats of not looking out for the livelihood of officers.

At one point while praising Michigan law enforcement, Trump said he would love to have them working during the election in “different territories of your state” to keep things “under control” like the officers do in their home area.

“I don’t want to say any particular names of locations, but I can think of a big one in this state. I’d love to have them working there during the election, I can tell you.”

The former president said he wouldn’t specifically name areas but throughout the campaign cycle he has continually criticized voting procedures in heavily-Democratic areas such as Detroit.

Trump’s visit to Howell has drawn criticism from the Harris campaign capitalizing on reports of demonstrations last month in the city during which masked individuals marched through downtown chanting “We love Hitler. We love Trump,” according to local newspaper Livingston Daily.

The march took place the same day Trump was campaigning in Grand Rapids, just 100 miles west of Howell, with two demonstrations taking place with at least a dozen individuals gathered waving flags with a swastika, the term “KKK” and other antisemitic messaging, and chanting “Heil Hitler,” Livingston Daily reported.

But Trump isn’t the only presidential candidate to campaign in Howell. Notably, President Joe Biden also visited the town to talk about infrastructure in 2021.

On Wednesday, as Trump was wrapping up his speech, a reporter asked him what his response was to criticism he has garnered for hosting a campaign rally in Howell, to which Trump quipped: Who was here in 2021?”

“Joe Biden,” the reporter responded, earning a laugh from Trump who then walked away.

The Harris campaign criticized Trump for not outright condemning the demonstrators.

“Today, Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who marched in his name,” said Harris-Walz Spokesperson Sarafina Chitika in a statement to ABC News. “Donald Trump can’t bring us together so he tries to drive us apart. The American people will reject his failed leadership and divisive agenda this November.”

Livingston County, where Howell is located, is one of very few counties surrounding the liberal Detroit metropolitan area that has constantly remained Republican in recent elections.

As some of the nearby counties in southeast Michigan gradually turned red over the years, Livingston became more and more solidly Republican, with Trump winning the county with more than 60% of votes both in 2016 and 2020.

Howell, which reports a white population of roughly 96%, well over Michigan’s white population of 73%, has had a “complicated history” with race, the Livingston Daily reported last month.

The local paper detailed the town’s history of various racial tensions stemming from the 1800s up to this year, including infamous local Ku Klux Klan member Robert Miles’ violent rallies and demonstrations in the 1960s and 70s to repeated racial allegations that have surfaced in town in recent years.

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