339 People Severely Wounded, 66 Killed: Trump Just Addressed the Nation-Truth! & Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Stories with the headline, “339 People Severely Wounded 66 Killed – Trump Just Addressed The Nation,” that began circulating describes how President Trump targeted violence in Chicago during a speech on July 28, 2017.
The Truth:
President Trump decried Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s response to violence in Chicago during an address on July 28, 2017, to police in Long Island — but there was no reference to “339 people severely wounded, 66 killed.”
That headline appeared at the fringe website Freedom Daily under the headline, “BREAKING: 339 People Severely Wounded 66 Killed – Trump Just Addressed The Nation.” There’s no reference to the 339 people severely wounded, 66 killed in the body of the article, and it’s not clear exactly what that claim is in reference to. The article begins by referring to Trump’s remarks about Rahm Emanuel:
We finally have a president who cares about thereal problems facing America’s inner cities!
President Donald Trump said in a speech on Friday that he privately urged Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to talk to a Chicago police official in order to fully grasp the issues that were plaguing Chicago’s inner city and its high crime after talking with a top Chicago police official who told him violence is soaring because of the effect of weak-kneed politicians stopping cops from doing their jobs.
But it’s true that President Trump referred to violence in Chicago during the address, repeating a previous claim that he met a police officer in Chicago who said that he could fix the city’s crime problems within a week. Trump claimed that he asked the man for a business card and later passed it along to Emmanuel but got no response, according to the transcript:
But we’re in Chicago, and we had massive motorcycle bridges, and you know those people have to volunteer. I don’t know if you know that, but from what I understand, they have to volunteer. And I had the biggest brigades. I had brigades sometimes with almost 300 motorcycles. Even I was impressed. I’d look ahead and it was nothing but motorcycles because they’d volunteer from all over various states.
But this one guy was impressive. He was a rough cookie and really respected guy. I could see he was respected. And he said, “All right, come on, get over here. Get over here. He’s got to get to work. Get over here.” And I said, “So let me tell — you’re from Chicago?” “Yes, sir.” I said, “What the hell is going on?” And he said, “It’s a problem; it can be straightened out.” I said, “How long would it take you to straighten out this problem?” He said, “If you gave me the authority, a couple of days.” (Laughter.) I really mean it. I said, “You really think so?” He said, “A couple of days. We know all the bad ones. We know them all.” And he said, the officers — you guys, you know all the bad ones in your area. You know them by their names. He said, “We know them all. A couple of days.”
I said, “You got to be kidding.” Now, this is a year and a half ago. I said, “Give me your card.” And he gave me a card. And I sent it to the mayor. I said, “You ought to try using this guy.” (Laughter.)
Guess what happened? Never heard. And last week they had another record. It’s horrible.
President Trump had recounted that story about the unnamed police officer on a motorcycle in Chicago, and Rahm Emmanuel’s staff and the Chicago Police Department have disputed Trump’s account, the Chicago Tribune reports:
But the president told an audience of cops on Long Island, N.Y., that he never heard back from Emanuel — a claim disputed by the mayor’s spokesman Adam Collins, who said Emanuel never received the name.
…Collins again rejected that claim Friday and said, “We can only hope the president is as interested in attacking crime as he is in attacking his attorney general, transgender members of the military and the three largest cities in the country.”
Chicago police spokesman Frank Giancamilli said CPD brass had also been “unable to identify any Department member who had a conversation with then-candidate Trump.”