On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor,” presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stated that it’s “not necessarily wrong” to argue that the justice system treats African-Americans differently, it “could be” that police act differently around African-Americans, and characterized the shooting deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling as “a terrible, disgusting performance that I saw.”
After stating that claims that the justice system treats African-Americans differently were “not necessarily wrong.” Trump characterized the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile as “a terrible, disgusting performance that I saw. Now, whether that’s training, whether that’s — they choked, or they got scared, or nervous. I mean, the one man who was being stepped on and then shot, in particular, I looked at that, I said, wow, that’s bad. That’s bad. The other one in the car, really bad, but I guess they could say he was going for his license or identification and maybe thought it was a gun, so. But it was bad. Both of them were very, very sad. So, maybe that’s lack of training. Maybe it’s people. I don’t know. It’s such a sad thing to see those two sights.”
When asked if they were, “symptomatic, in your opinion of a larger problem with American police? That they fear blacks, or that they act differently around African-Americans?” Trump responded, “Look, it could be.”
Trump also said that more training of police is necessary.
He added, “I think the police, 99.9%…do an incredible job in this country, and you know, the problem with two instances like this, which I think were terrible, but they get broadcast on television. And show all of the good work that the police does.”
Trump later said that he believes Black Lives Matter is a “divisive” term and group.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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