One White House reporter drew a connection between then-President Donald Trump’s 2017 speech encouraging law enforcement to use some violence against suspects and the beating death of Tyre Nichols.
At Friday’s White House briefing, the release of the horrific video evidence of the beating by police that ended the life of Tyre Nichols was still several hours away, but the killing was a frequent topic.
One reporter, Andrew Feinberg, asked about the Trump speech — during which he told cops “please don’t be too nice” and suggested they cause handcuffed prisoners to hit their heads — and whether President Joe Biden had plans to counteract that message:
ANDREW FEINBERG: Thank you. On Tyre Nichols, the — in previous police brutality cases in the past couple years, the officers have been white. That’s not the case in this — in this case. Is the President concerned that within the culture of policing there is a comfort with violence and an entitlement to use violence that would lead these officers to beat a man to death for fleeing from them during a traffic stop? Does he feel that police may feel emboldened to do these things? And what would he do about that, if so?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, I mean, the pri- — the President has called for meaningful reform. He’s called on it very clearly and spoken to it the last two years. And he wants to see real change. He wants to make sure there is accountability with law enforcement officers who violate their oaths.
And he also said that we need to build that long-lasting relationship between enforcement and the vast majority — we understand and he believes — of whom wear the badge honorably. And that is important too. And in those communities, not only they wear it honorably, but they also — to serve the community — to serve the community that they want to protect.
And so, look, we’re — we’re — I’m not going to get into psych- — you know, do any — any psychology here and going into the — the minds of — of — of folks. But what we can say is we believe that we — there needs to be meaningful reform, which is why the President acted and took executive action when — when Congress could not.
ANDREW FEINBERG: I would just — just follow up on that. His predecessor, in 2017, encouraged police officers to “don’t be too nice” and suggested that they might hit the heads of prisoners on the tops of their patrol cars. Does the President have any plans to speak to police officers and say that this is — this kind of behavior is not acceptable? Does he plan to address any police groups or anything like that?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I understand the question, Andrew, but it — I think the President has been very clear. He’s been very clear on the importance of having true reform, of the important of making sure that communities feel safe.
He took action — right? — he took executive action to deal with that specifical- — specific issue. And that’s what he’s going to continue to do. He’s going to, you know, use the tools that he can by taking executive action and call on Congress to truly make meaningful reform that’s going to deal with an issue that is devastating, you know, disproportionately, unfortunately, Black and brown communities.
