Biden Defended Portland Anarchists as ‘Peaceful Protesters’ but Claims Trump Failed Cops on Jan. 6

President Joe Biden argued Monday that former President Donald Trump’s reluctance to condemn his supporters for storming Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 is proof the former president did not support police officers.

The president said Capitol Police officers faced “medieval hell for three hours, dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage” during the events of January 6.

“Face to face with a crazed mob that believed the lies of the defeated president, the police were heroes that day,” Biden continued. “Donald Trump lacked the courage to act. The brave women and men in blue all across this nation should never forget that.”

Biden spoke to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Conference virtually on Monday as he continues recovering from coronavirus.

Despite Trump’s repeated vocal support of law enforcement, Biden suggested that the president did not care about police officers because he did not demand his supporters back down from their protest of the 2020 election.

“You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop,” Biden said. “You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-America.”

During the 2020 presidential campaign, however, Biden sided with protesters over law enforcement after they attacked federal property in Portland in the name of protesting the death of George Floyd.

“They are brutally attacking peaceful protesters,” Biden said in a statement criticizing federal officers deployed by then-President Donald Trump in response to violent anarchists attacking federal buildings in Portland, Oregon.

Biden spent most of the 2020 presidential campaign criticizing police officers and even blamed law enforcement for fueling distrust in minority communities in a statement on Peace Officers Memorial Day in 2021.

“[W]e also recognize that in many of our communities, especially Black and brown communities, there is a deep sense of distrust towards law enforcement,” Biden said, describing it as “a distrust that has been exacerbated by the recent deaths of several Black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement.”

With a rise in violent crime in many of America’s major cities, Biden has tried to rebrand himself as a president who supports law enforcement even after he endorsed redirecting funding for the police.

“Folks, the answer is not to abandon the streets. It’s not to choose between safety and equal justice. And we should agree it’s not to defund the police, it’s to fund the police,” Biden said during his State of the Union speech in March. “Fund them. Fund them. Fund them.”