President Donald Trump said there were some “some bad people” in law enforcement and compared police officers using lethal force to golfers who “miss a three-foot putt” during a Monday interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
“They choke just like in a golf tournament. They miss a three-foot putt,” Trump said, referring to situations when a golf player makes a bad shot because of their inability to handle the pressure of the situation.
“If you don’t make the decision, and you’re wrong, you’re dead. People choke under those circumstances, and they make a bad decision. I’ve seen bad decisions of people that it looked bad, but probably it was a choke,” Trump continued.
WATCH:
The president’s remarks during the interview come amid ongoing nationwide protests and riots over alleged racial injustice in policing. Kenosha, Wisconsin, is the latest city to face civil unrest after Jacob Blake was shot seven times Aug. 23 during a confrontation with police officers.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice said in a statement Aug. 26 that investigators “recovered a knife from the driver’s side floorboard” in Blake’s vehicle.
“In the meantime, he might’ve been going for a weapon,” Trump told Ingraham in the interview, referring to the knife. “And, you know, there’s a whole big thing there.”
He added that many police officers only have a “quarter of a second to make a decision” during tense encounters.
The president also criticized corporate media’s coverage of law enforcement, stating that when police officers commit “thousands and thousands of great acts and one bad one,” they only “make the evening news” for the bad acts. (RELATED: 3 Times Media Said Everything Was Fine As Fires Blazed Behind Them)
Trump told Ingraham he believed there were bad cops but that it was generally only “one bad apple or a ‘choker,'” returning to his earlier golf simile.