Donald Trump’s latest shocking statement was outrageous even for him, so, naturally, internet critics had thoughts. Lots and lots of them.
During an event at Washington, D.C.’s Museum of the Bible on Monday, the president suggested domestic violence shouldn’t be considered a crime.
It appeared he was dismissing such actions because calling domestic violence a crime hurts his claim that crime has seriously dropped in D.C. since he deployed the National Guard last month.
Although violent crime seems to have declined since the deployment, it hasn’t disappeared entirely, according to CNN. And other factors, like decreased tourism and restaurant reservations, may indicate fewer people are venturing out. Trump blamed the inability to entirely eradicate crime on an unnamed group of opponents who insist on including domestic violence in D.C.’s crime stats.
“They said crime’s down 87%. I said, ‘No, no, no, it’s more than 87%. Virtually nothing,’” Trump said during his speech, before suggesting domestic violence shouldn’t be considered a crime.
“Much lesser things, things that take place in the home, they call crime. You know, they’ll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime, see?’ So now I can’t claim 100%.”
You can see Trump make the statement in the clip below.
Considering that homicide by an abusive partner is the leading cause of death among pregnant and postpartum women in the U.S., it’s no wonder that people were outraged by the president’s downplaying of domestic violence.