Biden rips Trump on ‘respect for the law’ after crime speech

by Olafimihan Oshin - 07/26/22 8:22 PM ET

President Biden on Tuesday tore into former President Trump over remarks he made during a speech earlier that day in Washington, D.C., in which Trump said there is no longer “respect for the law” in the U.S.

Biden in a tweet called out his predecessor over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“Call me old fashioned, but I don’t think inciting a mob that attacks a police officer is ‘respect for the law,'” the president wrote, adding, “You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop – or pro-democracy, or pro-American.”

During his speech at the America First Policy Institute earlier that day, Trump said that efforts to combat violence in the U.S. needed to be stronger, arguing that the country is riven with violence.

“We’re living in such a different country for one primary reason: There is no longer respect for the law, and there certainly is no order. Our country is now a cesspool of crime,” Trump said in his speech.

Trump shared his support for invoking the death penalty as a punishment for drug dealers as well.

Biden also called out Trump during a virtual speech on Monday, saying the former president lacked “the courage to act” when his supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the vote to certify Biden’s Electoral College victory.

“For three hours, the defeated former president of the United States watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” Biden said in his speech.

“While he was doing that, brave law enforcement officers were subject to the medieval hell for three hours, dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with the crazed mob that believed the lies of the defeated president,” Biden added in his speech. “The police were heroes that day. Donald Trump lacked the courage to act.”

Trump, whose actions during the Capitol insurrection have been heavily scrutinized as part of a series of hearings held by the Jan 6. committee, is also under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ has begun investigating Trump directly over his alleged role in the riot, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.