In a sit-down interview with President Trump in Dallas, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner explained the origins of the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” which the president tweeted in the first days of protest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, asked President Trump on Thursday, if he knew the violent origins of the phrase 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts,' which the president tweeted about protests following the death of George Floyd. pic.twitter.com/AjJpO8xlOc
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“You look at me and I’m Harris on TV, but I’m a black woman, I’m a mom,” Faulkner said in the portion of the interview that aired Thursday evening. “You’ve talked about it, but we haven’t seen you be a consoler in this instance. And the tweets, ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Why those words?”
“So, that’s an expression I’ve heard over the years,” Trump responded. He said that he thought it was attributed to Frank Rizzo, the former Philadelphia mayor and police chief.
Faulkner, again taking a personal tone, said that the phrase was popularized by Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in 1967.
“I was about 18 months old at the time,” Faulkner said, adding that Headley pushed officers to freely use violence to break up civil rights protests.
Faulkner, who has defended Trump in the past, later called the remarks “incendiary.”
The tweet also was flagged by Twitter for violating rules against “glorifying violence.”
