President Trump leaned into his self-proclamation of being the President of “law and order” further as he appeared to approve of the “retribution” of federal law enforcement officers fatally shooting a man suspected of killing a pro-Trump supporter amid protests in Portland, during an interview on Fox News that aired Saturday night.
After mocking Portland mayor Ted Wheeler for refusing Trump’s offer to send in federal troops to the city to quell protests, the President then turned his focus to the fatal shooting earlier this month of Michael Forest Reinoehl — a man suspected of killing a member of the Patriot Prayer group during violent clashes in Portland — by U.S. Marshals.
“We sent in the U.S. Marshals for the killer, the man who killed the young man on the street. He shot him… just cold blooded killed him,” Trump said. “Two and a half days went by, and I put out ‘when are you going to go get him?’ And the U.S. Marshals went in to get him, and they ended up in a gunfight.”
Trump called Reinoehl a “violent criminal” before suggesting that his extrajudicial killing was par for the course.
“This guy was a violent criminal, and the U.S. Marshals killed him,” Trump said. “And I will tell you something — that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.”
Trump’s remarks comes amid his continuous infomercial-like praise for federal troops after agents fatally shot Reinoehl in Portland.
During his interview with Pirro that aired Saturday night, the President also threatened militaristic crackdowns on any potential “riots” that break out on November 3 if he were to win reelection.
“We’ll put them down very quickly if they do that,” Trump told Pirro. “We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that, if we want.”
Trump then characterized the potential “riots” as calling for “insurrection.”
“We just send in … and we do it very easy,” Trump said. “I mean, it’s very easy. I’d rather not do that because there’s no reason for it, but if we had to, we’d do that and put it down within minutes.”
Watch Trump’s remarks below:
Trump on extrajudicial killing of Portland shooting suspect: "This guy was a violent criminal, and the U.S. Marshals killed him. And I will tell you something, that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.” pic.twitter.com/mVDiqV0PDc
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 13, 2020
