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President Donald Trump released an open memorandum to CNN hosts Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and “other interested media” on the subject of “Joe Biden’s Lies on the Economy.”
The Tuesday letter follows President Joe Biden’s remarks during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that included claims of decreased violent crime.
“According to his own White House press release, Joe Biden’s false claims about a dramatic drop in crime are ostensibly based on data from the FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report. As numerous experts have testified, however, this data is completely and totally unreliable at the present time,” Trump wrote.
“In 2021, the FBI drastically changed how it collects this crime data from local law enforcement agencies across the country. As a result, thousands of local jurisdictions stopped reporting their crime statistics just as law enforcement and criminal justice policies were being radically altered in cities nationwide,” he revealed.
The letter cited the FBI’s website revealing first quarter statistics were based on only 71 percent of the nation’s law enforcement agencies. Missing data included “some of the largest and most violent cities in America,” such as Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and New Orleans.
In addition, 10 entire states did not report their data.
Citing the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), Trump noted “that between 2020 and 2022 (the most recent year for which data is available), there was a 43% increase in violent crime, 58% increase in rape, 89% Increase in aggravated assault, and a 56% increase in robbery.”
He added, “Additionally, the NCVS finds that more Americans were victims of violent crimes in 2022 than in any year since 2012.”
Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds addressed the top concern with the criminal justice policies of Vice President Kamala Harris in a Trump campaign event on Tuesday.
He argued Harris supported “one of the most sinister policies” in criminal justice, referring to cashless bail. Harris introduced a bill to incentivize states to move to cashless bail while she served as a U.S. senator from California in 2017.
“The issue of crime, lawlessness, and chaos in our communities is of paramount importance to the American People as they weigh which candidate to vote for in the 2024 election. That is why it is crucial that both CNN and media analysts hold Joe Biden to account for his egregiously false claims on crime,” Trump wrote near the conclusion of his open letter to the network’s hosts.