Monday night [July 19], Donald Trump spoke with FOX’s Bill O’Reilly over the phone while at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Not straying from his usual banter, the presidential nominee went on to link the Black Lives Matter activist group to the recent slew of senseless violence against police officers, most recently in Baton Rouge where three officers lost their lives in a fatal ambush carried out by a lone gunman.
“They certainly have ignited people and you see that…It’s a very, very serious situation and we just can’t let that happen,” Trump told O’Reilly after the veteran host brought up the theory that the Black Lives Matter movement has incited the killings and violence against law enforcement.
Referring to a 2014 video that showed protesters in New York City chanting “What do we want? Dead cops,” Trump labeled the group a “threat” that has “essentially” called “death to the police” even after the group formally condemned those words following that instance.
During the interview, Trump made it clear the if he were president he would have the Attorney General investigate the group for criminal activity.
“When you see something like that taking place, that’s really a threat…we are going to have to, perhaps, talk with the Attorney General about it or do something.”
Despite the fact that leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have repeatedly voiced their opposition of the violence against law enforcement, Donald Trump has yet to let go of his baseless theory, even adding that he is “probably the least racist person there is” and that he’s “doing very well with the African-American community” despite recent polling that showed his popularity at just one percent with the Black community.
