Trump then repeated an unfounded claim by the attorney for Garrett Rolfe, the Atlanta cop who shot Brooks and was charged with his felony murder on Wednesday. After repeating the police officer’s unconfirmed account, the president added: “I don’t know that I would’ve necessarily believed that, but I will tell you, it’s a very interesting thing and maybe that’s so.”

“It’s up to justice now,” Trump said, and then pivoted to a plea for sympathy for the police over their suffering, even as unrest over racial injustice and systemic police brutality still roils American streets. “I hope [Rolfe] gets a fair shake because police have not been treated fairly in our country. They have not been treated fairly. But again, he can’t resist a police officer like that and they ended up in a very terrible disagreement and, look at the way it ended. Very bad. Very bad.”