Donald Trump

Trump Says Obama Didn't Reform Policing, But Obama Did and Trump Scrapped It

Trump spoke Tuesday at a signing ceremony in the Rose Garden

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President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that his predecessor did not take action on reforming police — despite the fact that it was under Trump that several Obama-era changes were scrapped.

"President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. The reason they didn't try is they had no idea how to do it," Trump said in the White House Rose Garden, before signing an executive order that encourages police departments to adopt high standards, like banning choke holds unless the life of the officer is at risk and creating a database of excessive force complaints.

But Obama, the nation's first Black president who confronted and addressed race and racism frequently, did take action to reform police and attempt to reduce bias in law enforcement. The Trump administration is well aware of that, too: It unraveled those changes.

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