NYC Police Union Endorses Trump: “We’re fighting for our lives out there!”

From local NBC New York:

Seeking to amplify his law-and-order message, President Donald Trump on Friday told hundreds of New York Police Department officers that "no one will be safe in Biden’s America" if the former Democratic vice president defeats him in November.

"This guy has been taking your dignity away and your respect," Trump said of former Vice President Joe Biden. "And I'm telling you on Nov. 3 you’re going to be getting it back."

Trump spoke to members of the City of New York Police Benevolent Association, the union representing some 24,000 rank-and-file officers as he steps up his attacks on Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris.

"I've admired you my whole life, watched you do a job like nobody else, nobody else done it. Best of the best and I’m grateful happy you're here," the president said to the group. He also mentioned his brother, Robert, who was hospitalized on Friday, saying that "he's having a hard time, but he respected you like I respect you."

Trump was formally endorsed by the union during the event at his New Jersey golf course, where PBA President Pat Lynch said it was the first time he could recall the group ever endorsed a president.

"I have 36 years on this job, 21 as the president of this fine organization. I cannot remember when we’ve ever endorsed for Office of the President of the United States, until now. That's how important this is," Lynch said in front the crowd of officers.

"Many times people say that a union like ours, law enforcement groups, give endorsements. Not in the New York City PBA, sir," Lynch continued. "In the New York City PBA, Mr. President, you earn the endorsement and you’ve earned this endorsement. I’m proud to give it."

The president's campaign is looking to raise doubts about the Biden-Harris ticket's ability to keep the peace in the nation's biggest metropolises.

Trump is ripping a page out of Richard Nixon's law-and-order campaign playbook from 1968 — when American streets were rife with racial protests and Nixon campaigned vowing to crack down and restore order in an appeal tailored to white voters.

At a moment when the nation has been jarred by sometimes violent protests over police brutality, Trump has repeatedly blamed big city mayors in Democratic-strongholds — including New York, Portland, Seattle, Chicago — for undermining police officers.

"In New York, you have New York's finest, but they’ve totally taken away their incentive," Trump said earlier this week. "They've taken away their lives, in a sense, because they don’t allow them to do their job."

And from Local News12:

The president of the New York City Police Benevolent Association endorsed President Donald Trump Friday night at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

Pat Lynch says that this is the first time he recalls the union endorsing a candidate for president.

He says that Trump has "earned this endorsement."
Lynch says that officers are "fighting for their lives" and that the president is a strong voice that is needed across the country.
The police union did not endorse a candidate in the 2016 presidential election.

President Trump spoke to members of the union, claiming that the presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden is in favor of defunding the police. He later tweeted that he has admired the men and women of the NYPD his entire life.