COLUMBIA, SC (AP) – Former President Donald Trump said Saturday that footage of the brutal beating of Tire Nichols by five Memphis police officers was “horrific” and that the attack “shouldn’t have happened.”
“I thought it was terrible. He was in such trouble. He was just pummeled. Now, it probably won’t happen,” Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday, a day after authorities released footage of the attack on the 29-year-old black man following a traffic stop. Nichols died three days later.
The comments are notable for Trump, who is running for the White House and has a history of advocating harsh treatment of people in police custody. He became president during the racial justice protests that emerged in the summer of 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. At the time, he signed an executive order advocating for better police practices but has been criticized by some for failing to acknowledge what he sees as systemic racial bias in policing.
Ultimately Trump focused his 2020 re-election bid on a “law and order” message that emphasized support for law enforcement.
A newly released video of the violence in Memphis shows police holding down and beating Nichols for three minutes with fists, boots and batons. The footage shows police screaming profanities at him as Nichols screams for his mother. Trump said Nichols calling his mother was a “very sad moment.”
“That’s really the point I get the most, to be honest with you,” he said.
Trump did not address the video in a campaign speech in New Hampshire or South Carolina, the first stop of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Five former Memphis Police Department officers, who are also black, have been fired and charged with murder and other crimes. The legal team for the Nichols family has drawn comparisons to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles driver Rodney King.
Trump said the Memphis Police took “strong action” by disbanding police units involved in the attack, which was made to target violent offenders in an area beset by high crime.
“Look, the tape may not be entirely conclusive but, to me, it’s pretty conclusive and vicious and violent and hard to believe – because it’s a traffic violation,” he said.