Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump told Bill O’Reilly Monday that he thought Chicago’s violence could be stopped within a week using “tough police tactics."
Trump was featured as a guest on O’Reilly's Fox News show Monday night. The host opened the interview with a question about Trump's immigration policy, but the conversation quickly shifted to violent crime and, ultimately, Chicago.
Trump told O’Reilly that he knows police officers in Chicago who would put an end to the violence “if they were given the authority to do it.” After being pressed, Trump explained that police would be “much tougher than they are right now.”
The GOP nominee explained that he met a “top” Chicago police officer who reportedly told him that he could “stop much of this horror show that’s going on” in the city within a single week. Trump explained that the officer, who is "not the police chief," would use "tough police tactics,” noting that those sorts of measures were acceptable "when you have people being killed.”
However, the billionaire said he didn’t ask the officer for specifics on the plan because he isn’t the mayor of Chicago.
“I’m sure he’s got a strategy,” he added. “I didn’t ask him his strategy.”
Trump also claimed that he submitted the officer’s name for some sort of job.
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"I sent his name in and I said, 'you probably should hire this guy because you have nothing to lose,’” Trump said. “Look at what’s going on in Chicago, it’s horrible. This guy felt totally confident that he could stop it in a very short period of time.”
Trump faced resistance last week after asking African-American voters what they "have to lose by trying something new like Trump?" The Trump campaign is currently trying to bolster minority support. At the same rally, Trump asked for "the vote of every, single African-American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future."
The billionaire cancelled a rally at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavillion in March after violence erupted outside of the venue. Trump hasn't made a public appearance in the city since.
