Another day, another attempt by Donald Trump to twist the facts, this time telling an interviewer that more white people are killed by US law enforcement, in an attempt to downplay violence against African Americans.
During an interview on CBS News, Trump made the claim when asked about the rate at which African-Americans were still dying at the hands of police.
Donald Trump has claimed that “more white people” are killed by police enforcement despite African Americans being 3.5 times more likely to be killed.
CBS News’ Catherine Herridge asked, “Why are African Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement?”
To which the president replied, “And so are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people. More white people by the way. More white people.”
The question came in the wake of numerous protests provoked by the death of George Floyd on May 25 at the hands of police enforcement in Minneapolis, an event which was caught on camera. Following this, the Black Lives Matter movement quickly gained momentum across the world as protests against systematic racism and violence grew.
Then start with the police.#PoliceBrutalityStopped
Your answer that more white people are killed by police than blacks shows there is indeed a problem with #PoliceBrutality.
You’re, once again, just too aloof to understand the gravity of what you said.
— Enoch Group Data (@EnochGroup) July 15, 2020
Trump’s latest claim, while an attempt to avoid talking about racially motivated police brutality, was also an attempt to twist statistics on deaths at the hands of police in the United States.
While a 2016 analysis from Washington Post found that half of the people killed by police in the US are white, the investigation also found that African Americans, who only make up 13 per cent of the population, were 2.5 times more likely to be shot and killed by police than white Americans.
Furthermore, a study by the American Journal of Public Health in 2018 found that African Americans were 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police compared to white people.
Trump’s latest comments are unsurprising considering his unwavering support for America’s police departments, as well as his continued attempts to downplay the racial tensions in the United States.
As social unrest has raged around the United States, recent questions have also been raised about the flying of the Confederate flag, due to its association with slavery. When asked about this particular issue, Trump replied: “I know people that like the Confederate flag, and they’re not thinking about slavery.”
