(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said in his speech to a joint session of Congress that he’ll work to protect and support police. But his words set off a backlash that included a Democratic lawmaker accusing him of the “height of hypocrisy” and a former Capitol Police officer noting that Trump pardoned 1,500 people who attacked him and his colleagues during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police Officer who risked his life to defend the Capitol Building as Trump’s supporters rioted in 2021, slammed Trump in a series of posts on the social media site Bluesky as the president was addressing Congress Tuesday night.
“Trump threatens public safety,” Dunn said in one post.
In an expletive-laced post, the 41-year-old Dunn, wrote in all capital letters, “YOU PARDONED OUR ATTACKERS.”
During his speech Tuesday night, Trump did not mention the insurrection, of which, according to the House Jan. 6 committee’s final report, he allegedly engaged in a criminally “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.
In his address, the president spoke about getting police officers nationwide “the support, protection and respect they so dearly deserve.”
“They have to get it. They have such a hard, dangerous job,” Trump said. “But we’re going to make it less dangerous. The problem is the bad guys don’t respect the law, but they’re starting to respect it, and they soon will respect it.”
In the first two months of 2025, at least 58 police officers have been shot in the line of duty, including eight who were killed, according to a report released on March 3 by the National Fraternal Order of Police. The report showed that the number of police shootings is down 11% from this time in 2024.
Among the officers killed this year are Virginia Beach Police Officers Cameron Girvin, 25, and Christopher Reese, 30, who authorities said were shot at point-blank range on Feb. 25 as they were already lying on the ground wounded and defenseless following a traffic stop. The suspected killer, who police said died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was identified as 42-year-old John McCoy III, a convicted felon.
Trump said that one of the first steps he has taken since returning to the White House is signing an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone convicted of murdering a police officer.
“And tonight, I’m asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law,” Trump said.
Trump cited the March 25, 2024, fatal shooting of New York Police Officer Jonathan Diller, who was gunned down while conducting a traffic stop in Queens — becoming the first NYPD officer killed in the line of duty in two years. The suspect, who was shot and wounded by Diller’s partner, was identified as 34-year-old Guy Rivera.
Rivera, who has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge, was previously arrested 21 times, according to police records. Also arrested in the fatal shooting, was 41-year-old Lindy Jones, who was in the car with Rivera at the time of the shooting. Jones pleaded not guilty to a charge of being a criminal possession of a weapon and possession of a defaced firearm. Jones had 14 prior arrests including attempted murder and robbery, and was out on bail in connection to a separate crime at the time of the shooting, police records indicate.
“We’re going to get these cold-blooded killers and repeat offenders off our streets. And we’re going to do it fast. Gotta stop it,” said Trump, who attended Diller’s wake.
Trump called on Congress to pass a new crime bill aimed at “getting tougher on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America’s police officers so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed.”
Following Trump’s speech, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, posted a statement on social media accusing Trump of “the height of hypocrisy.”
“Trump talks a big game about standing with … the blue, yet on the first day of his administration he pardoned hundreds of cop-beaters who tried to steal an election on January 6, 2021,” Garcia wrote.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-California, who walked out of Trump’s speech with other Democrats, also took to social media, posting, “Trump insults the American people by saying, ‘let’s bring back law and order.’ Among his first acts as president? Pardoning 1500 violent felons involved in the January 6 attacks on our U.S. Capitol and democracy.”
Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., cited the hundreds of FBI agents and Department of Justice employees who have lost their jobs in the Trump administration’s sweeping reduction in the federal workforce being overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Purging hundreds of FBI and DOJ agents who investigated the Jan 6 insurrection — career law enforcement officers, not political appointees — does not make us safer, more secure, or prosperous,” Frankel wrote on social media.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
