Asked about Black Americans killed by cops, Trump says, ‘So are white people’
President Donald Trump, struggling in his reelection race against his Democratic opponent, on Tuesday sought to appeal to his predominantly white base of voters with a series of startling remarks about the Confederate flag, victims of police violence and a St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters peacefully marching by their house.
Trump added to his long record of racially inflammatory comments during a
CBS News interview, in which he brushed off a question about Black people killed by police officers, saying that white people are killed in greater numbers.
Trump reacted angrily when the interviewer, Catherine Herridge, asked:
“Why are African Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country?”
Trump responded: “What a terrible question to ask. So are white people. More white people, by the way.”
Statistics show that while more white Americans are killed by the police, people of color are killed at higher rates.
In a separate interview published Tuesday with the conservative website Townhall.com, Trump falsely claimed that a white St. Louis couple who confronted peaceful marchers outside their home with guns had been on the verge of being beaten and having their home burned down.
“They were going to be beat up badly, and the house was going to be totally ransacked and probably burned down,” Trump said.
Video of the incident showed that the protesters at no point physically threatened the couple.
Trump recently retweeted a video of a supporter shouting “white power” and said he would oppose a bipartisan effort in Congress to remove Confederate names from military bases.
Asked in the CBS interview how he felt about the use of the Confederate battle flag in public settings like NASCAR races, the president said: “With me, it’s freedom of speech. Very simple. Like it, don’t like it, it’s freedom of speech.”
Asked if he understood that the flag was a painful symbol to many people as a reminder of slavery, Trump said, “Well, people love it and I don’t view — I know people that like the Confederate flag and they’re not thinking about slavery.” He added, “I just think it’s freedom of speech, whether it’s Confederate flags or Black Lives Matter or anything else you want to talk about.”