Former President Donald Trump echoed past falsehoods about the integrity of US elections and asked police officers to “watch for voter fraud” while addressing the nation’s largest law enforcement union on Friday in North Carolina.
After receiving the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, Trump encouraged the officers gathered for his address in Charlotte to monitor for voter fraud because “they’re afraid of you people.”
“I hope you can watch — and you’re all over the place — watch for the voter fraud. Because we win, without voter fraud, we win so easily. Hopefully we’re going to win anyway. But we want to keep it down,” he said.
The comments are the latest instance of Trump warning of potential widespread voter fraud in the 2024 presidential election. He has repeatedly suggested without evidence that Democrats will commit voter fraud to swing the results of November’s election, tying the claims to his false conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.
Trump repeated the baseless accusations at another moment during his remarks, suggesting that he would win the election if an “honest” vote tabulator “came down from on high” to determine the results of the presidential election in each state.
Trump on crime: In accepting the endorsement from the police organization, the former president reiterated his support for local police departments to adopt “stop-and-frisk” policies, the controversial law enforcement tactic that has been linked with increased reports of racial profiling when utilized. He also expressed support for “broken windows policing,” a controversial crime reduction policy that strictly penalizes minor crimes.
Trump suggested those policies have helped reduce crime rates when implemented in the past.
