Striking back at Democrats' "defund the police" movement, former President Donald Trump vowed to "restore law and order to our streets" at his Save America rally in Mendon, Illinois, on Saturday night, which aired live on Newsmax.
"Every day the radical Democrats' defund the police agenda — and you know they have not stopped — it's just not stopped," Trump told the crowd. "They're trying to stop because now some of them — the smarter ones — are realizing that's not good politics.
"But it's not true, because what they're doing is ... they want to defund the police. They want to get rid of police forces in major cities. It would be devastation. And it's getting innocent and great Americans killed right here in Illinois."
Trump took aim at the continuing gun violence in the city of Chicago, a city with some of the more restrictive gun-control laws.
"Chicago has turned into total bedlam," Trump continued, pointing to the murders of young children caught in the crossfire of Chicago's deadly gun violence, denouncing Illinois Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
"Crime has gone through the roof in Chicago and in certain parts of your state," Trump said. "Your governor has done a horrible, horrible job. Already this year there have been over — listen to this; this is not even believable — already this year, there have been over 24,000 crimes in Chicago alone: 24,000! How would that be possible?"
Chicago is just one example of Democrat-run cities being taken over by violent and deadly crime, Trump added.
"All over the country, this crime ... all over the country ... in Democrat-run cities," Trump continued. "Here's an idea: Instead of targeting Republicans, conservatives, Christians, and patriotic parents, the Biden administration should try going in and dismantling the Crips, the Bloods, MS-13. How about BLM [Black Lives Matter]? How about antifa, and the other savage street gangs who are turning our communities into war zones?"
Trump blasted Democrats for pushing gun control and attacking the Second Amendment.
"It's as if we lived in a Third-World nation," Trump said. "This is not our country. What's happening, all Democrat-run cities. Literally, you have hundreds of people a month being shot.
"And instead of taking guns away from law-abiding Americans, we should try taking them away from the gangs, the cartels, and the violent criminals for a change."
Trump also rebuked Democrat efforts to handcuff policing.
"We will stop the crime wave in Democrat-run cities," Trump said. "We will give our police the power they need and the respect they deserve and let them do their job the only way they know how to do it.
"And we will not take legal protection away from them. You know, the new thing is first to fund the police."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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