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The Independent
Trump pulls out of interview after paper questions his dubious claims about crime rate
By Katie Hawkinson,
19 days ago
Donald Trump backed out of an interview after a local paper asked him for data to back up his continued baseless claims that crime is on the rise under President Joe Biden .
The Detroit News reported that Trump’s campaign had agreed to an interview with the former president on Tuesday after a campaign speech. However, the campaign suddenly claimed Trump no longer had time for the interview after a reporter began probing them on crime data.
“The Trump campaign had initially agreed that Trump would participate in an interview with The Detroit News on Tuesday,” state politics reporter Craig Mauger wrote. “But after the newspaper began asking about the Michigan crime data before the event, a campaign aide said the presidential candidate no longer had time for an interview after the speech.”
At the Howell, Michigan campaign event, Trump claimed there is a “crime wave” going on at levels “nobody has ever seen before.”
“The amount of crime that we have is unbelievable,” Trump said, later labeling this perceived rise the “Kamala crime wave.”
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Howell, Michigan on Tuesday. There, he claimed the crime rate is on the rise — despite federal data showing otherwise (AFP via Getty Images)
Trump has made a similar claim countless times — including in April in the same state, when he claimed the crime rate is only going up.
As The Detroit News and other outlets have pointed out, national violent and property crime rates have fallen since Trump left office.
The Detroit News cited data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation which showed the national violent crime rate dropped in 2021 and 2022 under Biden.
The Trump campaign responded by claiming the data is “totally unreliable at the present time” because the FBI used “estimated crime numbers” for law enforcement agencies that didn’t report numbers, The Detroit News reports.
The murder rate also spiked by 30 percent during the last year of Trump’s presidency, the largest one-year rise on record, CNN reports.
“Trump’s implication that the crime rate is only going up is false,” Anna Harvey, a political science professor and director of the Public Safety Lab at New York University, told CNN earlier this year.
Trump has repeatedly spread a similar baseless claim that countries are sending people from mental health institutions and prisons to illegally enter the United States.
The Washington Post estimated that during his presidency, Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements.
The Independent has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
We need to get rid of this lying piece of doom and gloom, it’s so obvious he’s trying to scare everyone and he’s the only one who can fix it. HE IS THE ONE WHO WILL KILL OUR DEMOCRACY. We should get rid of the electoral college. It has always made me feel that in the end the voters choice is being overtaken by the electoral college therefore do our votes really matter?We also need to do something about the Supreme Court and the corruption that’s going on. I thought the Supreme Court was supposed to be nonpartisan. It’s not by any means. Giving Trump immunity is just one of the corrupt rulings. They’re helping to put Trump back in power. We definitely need to make some changes! #NeverTrump #SupremeCourt #immunity
Jim Rubin
1d ago
Trump is a pathological liar and will shoot his mouth off on any subject without a source of his input.
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