NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is again threatening to send federal agents to New York City if local authorities don’t stop a surge of violence that has left seven people dead and more than 50 people shot since Friday.
Trump, who’s running for re-election on a law-and-order agenda as a counterweight to the police and criminal justice reform movement, reacted to the news of the mayhem in his hometown Sunday night on Twitter.
“Law and Order,” Trump wrote, directing his message at the city’s Democratic mayor, Bill de Blasio. “If (he) can’t do it, we will!”
It was the latest in a string of bloody weekends that have roiled the city in the wake of coronavirus-related shutdowns, rallies against police brutality and a month-long protest encampment in front of City Hall.
According to police, 51 people were shot from Friday through Sunday, six of whom died from their injuries. Another man died after a physical altercation, police said.
Eight people were shot and five people were killed over the same span last year.
De Blasio on Monday dismissed Trump’s tweet as “bluster,” telling reporters that a recent uptick in gun arrests was a hopeful sign that the NYPD “will turn this tide.”
De Blasio’s press secretary, Bill Neidhardt, noted that Trump sent his tweet hours after retweeting a pundit who said Democratic cities should be left to rot.
Trump has used violent spikes in Democratic-led cities such as New York, Chicago and Philadelphia to justify claims that recent reforms and cuts to police budgets have handcuffed officers and allowed criminals to run amok. His re-election campaign has been airing farcical television commercials suggesting no one will be there to answer 911 calls if his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, is elected president.
“The only thing rotten is Trump’s mind,” Neidhardt tweeted in response.
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