Someone’s been watching “The Purge.”
Former President Donald Trump mused about having “one real rough, nasty” and “violent day” of policing to tamp down on rampant retail theft raging across the country while speaking at a rally in Erie, Pa., on Sunday.
“We have to let the police do their job. And if they have to be extraordinarily rough —,” Trump, 78, said before getting interrupted by cheers. “The police aren’t allowed to do their job. They’re told, ‘If you do anything, you’re going to lose your pension; you’re going to lose your family, your house, your car.’ What the hell is going on?”
The 45th president alluded to viral footage of bandits looting retail stores and faulted the “liberal left” for hamstringing law enforcement’s ability to respond to criminals.
Trump then floated the idea of tapping someone “tough” like Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) to take charge of law enforcement for a period of time.
“If you had one day, like one real, rough nasty day with the drugstores as an example,” Trump later said during his riff on policing. “One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out, and it will end immediately — end immediately.”
The former president has also pitched ideas such as issuing the death penalty for drug dealers and child molesters, as well as bringing back stop-and-frisk policing methods across the nation.
During his riff on crime, Trump warned that retail theft can cause stores to “go out of business.”
Trump’s team later explained that he was not rolling out a new policy to combat crime, but rather speaking about how he wants to lift onerous restrictions on police officers.
“The police want to do it,” Trump stressed at one point. “The Border Patrol wants to do it — Border Patrol, they’re incredible. They want to do it. They’re not allowed to do it because the liberal left won’t let them.”
But Trump has also shown a willingness for leniency in some instances, having signed the bipartisan First Step Act criminal justice reform package into law and previously leveraged his clemency and pardon power.
He’s also decried the power of prosecutors in the wake of the spate of criminal charges levied against him.
