Donald Trump clashed with a Fox News interviewer over Joe Biden plans to "defund" police
US President Donald Trump has clashed with a Fox News interviewer over his claims that Democratic challenger Joe Biden plans to defund the police and other issues, including the coronavirus pandemic.
During the interview conducted on the patio outside the Oval Office, President Trump blamed rising violence in some cities on their Democratic leaders. "They've run them poorly," President Trump said after reporter Chris Wallace pointed out that many of the cities had been run by Democratic mayors for decades.
"It was always bad, but now it's gotten totally out of control. And it's really because they want to defund the police, and Biden wants to defund the police," President Trump claimed.
"No, sir, he does not," Mr Wallace countered during a testy moment in the exchange shown in a clip tweeted by Fox News Sunday.
"Let Biden sit through an interview like this, he will be on the ground crying for mommy. He'll say 'mommy, mommy, please take me home'," President Trump said.
President Trump then claimed Biden had signed a charter with left-wing Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders to cut law enforcement budgets.
When contradicted, President Trump demanded his aides find the policy charter but was not able to find any such statement, Wallace said in later comments on Fox.
The movement to defund the police followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis late in May when an officer held him to the ground with a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
It has had some impact, with New York cutting its annual police budget by $1 billion after weeks of protest in the city.
With inputs from AFP