Donald Trump returns to North Carolina to speak at Fraternal Order of Police meeting
CHARLOTTE, NC — CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Donald Trump returns to the uncertain state of North Carolina on Friday to speak at a Fraternal Order of Police convention, seeking to portray himself as a tougher anti-crime opponent than his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has been in the final months of the campaign.
Trump is expected to address the fall meeting of the FOP National Board of Trustees in Charlotte. FOPThe world’s largest law enforcement organization backed Trump’s 2020 re-election bid, with the president saying on behalf of its 373,000 members that Trump had “made it clear he supports us.”
The images of the former president and GOP candidate in a room full of police officers give Trump a platform to contrast their support with his characterization of Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general who Trump has called the “leader” of a “Marxist attack on police” across the country.
“Kamala Harris will bring crime, chaos, destruction and death,” Trump said last month in Michiganone of many generalizations about an America under Harris. “You’re going to see levels of crime that you’ve never seen before. … I’m going to bring law, order, security and peace.”
Harris has emphasized her status as the former chief prosecutor in her home state by frequently saying, “I know the Donald Trump type” after referring to “all kinds of perpetrators” in her previous roles.
She was helped in her message by two officers who were present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and who have become surrogates for the Democratic ticket. They both campaigned for her at various events across the country and reflect on that day.
“Three and a half years later, the fight for democracy is still going on,” former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn told a group of voters in Arizona this summer. “It’s still going on. Donald Trump is still that threat. His deranged, self-centered, obsessive quest for power is the reason that violent insurrectionists attacked my colleagues and me.”
At last month’s Democratic National Convention, former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell — who retired in 2022 because of injuries he suffered that day — said Trump “called for our attackers. … He betrayed us.”
Trump’s push for support from police officers also clashes with the sympathy Trump has shown for those who have ignored police orders, including a promise to pardon those accused of beating officers during the January 6 siege of the Capitol.
Judges and juries hearing these cases have heard police officers describe being brutally attacked while defending the building. In all, about 140 officers were injured that day, making it “likely the largest single-day mass attack on law enforcement” in U.S. history, said Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
More than 900 people have pleaded guilty to crimes related to January 6, and about 200 others have been convicted at trial. More than 950 people have been convicted, about two-thirds of whom have received prison sentences — sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years.
Trump has long voiced his support for the January 6 suspects. During a meeting in March in Ohiohe stood on stage, his hand raised in salute, as a recorded chorus of prisoners at the jail chanted for their role in the January 6 attack sang the national anthemAn announcer asked the crowd to stand “for the terribly and unfairly treated hostages of January 6.”
“Those J6 fighters, they were fighters, but they were really, more than anything, victims of what happened,” Trump said during a meeting in Nevada this summer. He also falsely claimed that police welcomed rioters into the Capitol, saying they told the crowd, “Get in, get in, get in, get in.”
“What a situation that was,” Trump said. “What a terrible, terrible thing.”
The FOP has not yet officially endorsed the 2024 election, but other law enforcement groups have already thrown their weight behind Trump. another charlotte meetingTrump in July received the endorsement of the National Organization of Police Organizations, whose leadership praised his “steadfast and very public support for our men and women on the front lines.”
In February, the International Union of Police Associations endorsed Trump, calling his support for officers “unprecedented.” Last month, he won the endorsement of the Arizona Police Association, just days after the group backed Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego over Trump ally Kari Lake in that state’s Senate race.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP