Chris Hayes Presses GOP Rep.: ‘Do You Support the President’s Call for Police Brutality?’

During President Trump‘s speech on immigration and MS-13 today, he told law enforcement officers he doesn’t think they should be “too nice” to criminals. Chris Hayes pressed a Republican congressman––who was in attendance at the event––on that tonight.

After playing the President’s remarks, Hayes asked Rep. Lee Zeldin, “Do you support the president’s call for police brutality?”

Zeldin said he doesn’t, but he also talked about murders in the area believed to have been carried out by MS-13. The Trump administration has been putting some focus this week on cracking down on the violent gang.

Zeldin added that law enforcement officials should be “following local rules and regulations and understanding people are innocent until proven guilty.”

Hayes brought up how the Suffolk County PD indirectly rebuked the President’s remarks and asked Zeldin if Trump’s remarks were appropriate. Zeldin said, “No. I mean, I definitely have a different style than the President.”

Hayes again asked, “Was it appropriate to tell police officers to engage in brutality?”

Zeldin replied, “No. I don’t––I can’t agree with that.”

Hayes recalled the case of Freddie Gray and the circumstances of his death while in police custody to say that the comments from the President could certainly be taken as “hurtful”:

“What seems important as someone who is a lawmaker or someone who is a president and enforcing the law is to understand that engaging in protecting people from MS-13 and prosecuting crimes does not necessitate the police engaging in extra-judicial violence. That seems like an important line to establish and that one doesn’t have anything to do with the other because we’re a nation of laws and we pursue people like MS-13 lawfully.”

Zeldin conceded “you can’t play devil’s advocate” on this and reiterated, “If I was up there, I wouldn’t have said it.”

Watch the segment above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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