President Donald Trump is being confronted about whether he understood the meaning of “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” when he controversially tweeted it.
Trump wrote the controversial tweet on May 29. He then walked it back within 24 hours, tweeting, “Looting leads to shooting … I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means.”
….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
….It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It’s very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. Honor the memory of George Floyd!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
However, during an interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, the Fox host asked the president, “You look at me and I’m Harris on TV, but I’m a black woman, I’m a mom. You’ve talked about it, but we haven’t seen you come out and be a consoler in this instance. And the tweets, ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Why those words?”
Trump answered, “That’s an expression I’ve heard over the years.”
Faulkner then asked if he knew where the phrase originated, to which the president claimed he heard it from a former mayor of Philadelphia.
The Fox News host then said, “No, it comes from 1967, I was about 18 months old at the time.”
The phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” dates back to late 1967 when Miami police chief Walter Headley made the statement.
Faulkner added, “It was from the chief of police in Miami, he was cracking down. He meant when he said. And he said: ‘I don’t even care if it makes it look like brutality, I’m going to crack down, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ That frightened a lot of people when you said that.”
Watch the video below:
Faulkner: Why those words?
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 11, 2020
Trump: So that’s an expression I’ve heard over the years
Faulkner: Do you know where it comes from?
Trump: I think Philadelphia. The mayor of Philadelphia.
Faulkner: It comes from 1967 pic.twitter.com/J8EgoVXcqX
Trump then stated that the phrase means two things: “One is if there is looting, there is probably going to be shooting, and that is not a threat. That’s really just a fact because that’s what happens. The other is if there is looting, there is going to be shooting. They are very different meanings.”
The footage of Trump’s remarks made during his interview with Faulkner drew some reaction on Twitter, including from George Conway, a critic of the president, who tweeted, “Oh cool the Frank Rizzo defense.” This was pointing to Trump’s false attribute that the phrase came from the former mayor of Philadelphia from 1972 to 1980, Frank Rizzo.