Police union leader blasts Biden for 'inflammatory rhetoric' against law enforcement

Fraternal Order of Police leader Joe Gamaldi on Thursday criticized President Biden for asking why police officers always shoot with deadly force. 

"His most recent comments are not helpful," Gamaldi, the union's national vice president, said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "It's just inflammatory rhetoric set to get an emotional response from an audience that is not based in fact."

Earlier this week, Biden called for the retraining of police officers and asked "Why should you always shoot with deadly force? The fact is if you need to use your weapon, you don’t have to do that." 

Gamaldi responded: "We're not out here purposely trying to use deadly force every single time as he put it in that speech. It is extremely harmful to us. It erodes the trust that we're trying to build with our communities when you make comments like that."

Gamaldi, who represents the country's biggest police union, also said No. 1 ask of Biden from law enforcement is that he condemn violence against officers, which he hasn't done yet.

In an April 2022 report from the BBC, the number of police murdered in the U.S. was up by 59%. 

"How about you just put out a statement saying it's wrong to shoot a police officers?" Gamaldi asked, referring to Biden. "It's wrong to assault police officers. It is an extremely low bar to just ask to put out a statement condemning historic violence against law enforcement, and the White House just refuses to do it."