Trump said police officers would be 'protected' to 'fight back' against protesters in confrontations

• President Donald Trump said his agenda would be "anti-crime and pro-cop all the way" as he accepted the endorsement of the City of New York Police Benevolent Association.
• Trump lamented that amid recent anti-racism and police brutality protests in cities across the US, officers couldn't "fight back" in clashes with demonstrators.
• The president also went after presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, warning that "no one will be safe" under Biden's presidency and falsely claiming that the former vice president supports defunding the police.

President Donald Trump accepted a police endorsement on Friday with a gushing speech that promised his agenda would be "pro-cop all the way."

Trump was addressing several members of the City of New York Police Benevolent Association at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club as the union announced its support for Trump in the upcoming election.

Union president Patrick Lynch introduced Trump for what he said was the first presidential endorsement from the group, which represents more than 24,000 members, that he could remember in his "36 years on this job."

"That's how important this is, Mr. President, we're fighting for our lives out there," Lynch said. "We don't want this to spread to the rest of the country. We need your strong voice across the country."

Trump responded, echoing Lynch's comment and offering wide-sweeping and vague criticisms of anti-police sentiment telling the officers: "You're the finest, they won't let you do your job."

"Our country is suffering from a far-left radical movement ... that is trying to defame, demoralize, defund, dismantle and dissolve our great police departments," Trump said, referring to the growing discussion over defunding and abolishing police departments amid recent protests over police brutality and racism in law enforcement.

The president went on to lament that amid these protests, demonstrators had violently clashed with police on the streets of cities across the US, and police weren't allowed to "fight back."

"You fight back, you lose your pension, you lose your life, they throw you in jail," Trump said.

Trump pointed to an incident he said he saw in which demonstrators dumped water on two NYPD officers. He called the incident "one of the saddest things I've ever seen" and said he would have protected the officers had they retaliated.

"I wish they fought back, I promise nothing would have happened to them ... I swear you'll be protected," Trump said.

As part of his warnings against what he called a "left-wing war on cops," Trump claimed that if "Sleepy" former Vice President Joe Biden were to become president, "no one will be safe."

Biden "has been taking your dignity away and your respect," Trump told the officers.

"I'm telling you on November 3 you're going to be getting it back," Trump said.

In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly made the false claimed that Biden supports defunding the police, even clashing with Fox News host Chris Wallace in an interview last month.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter that she took the police union's endorsement as a "potential problem" with "the state with lethal weapons promoting "preferred" candidates for office."

"I'm sure this is part of their neighborhood outreach plan," the Democratic lawmaker said about the NYPD union.