Trump urges ‘law and order,’ attends NYPD officer’s wake
MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. — Donald Trump attended Thursday’s wake of a New York City police officer gunned down in the line of duty and called for “law and order” as part of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s attempt to show a contrast with President Joe Biden and focus on crime as part of his third White House campaign.
The visitation for Officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop Monday, was held in suburban Massapequa on Long Island. Police said Diller, 31, was shot below his bulletproof vest while approaching an illegally parked car in Queens.
Diller, who was married and had a 1-year-old son, was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
Trump’s visit came as Biden was also in New York for a previously scheduled benefit with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Trump has accused Biden of lacking toughness, and his campaign sought to contrast his visit with Biden’s fundraiser.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-pierre said Thursday that the president has spoken with New York City’s mayor, but she said she didn’t have any “private communications to share” when asked if Biden had spoken to Diller’s family. Jean-pierre said the administration’s hearts go out to the officer’s family.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, she said Biden has supported law enforcement throughout his entire career and took a dig at Trump’s record. “Violent crime surged under the previous administration,” Jean-pierre said. “The 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.”
After visiting in the funeral home with Diller’s family, Trump spoke outside to reporters, with about a dozen local police officers forming a backdrop behind him.
Trump called Diller’s killing “such a sad, sad event, such a horrible thing.”
“The police are the greatest people we have. There’s nothing and there’s nobody like them. And this should never happen,” Trump said.
He spoke about Diller’s wife and young son, saying he “doesn’t know how his life has been changed.”
“We have to get back to law and order. We have to do a lot of things differently. This is not working. This is happening too often,” Trump said.
Trump has deplored crime in heavily Democratic cities, called for shoplifters to be shot and wants to immunize police officers from lawsuits for potential misconduct. But he’s also demonized local prosecutors, the FBI and the Department of Justice over the criminal prosecutions he faces and the investigation while he was president into his first campaign’s interactions with Russia.
He has also embraced those imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of his supporters overran police lines, and Capitol and local police officers were attacked and beaten.