After Fatal Stabbing of Ukrainian Refugee, Trump Says U.S. Must Confront Crime Problem

Newly released video of the fatal attack becomes MAGA talking point on Democrats being “soft on crime.”

President Trump on Monday described the suspect in a fatal stabbing in North Carolina as “evil” and said the U.S. has to confront violent crime.

President Trump has made fighting crime in certain cities a cornerstone of his political policy.

A surveillance video showed the moments before and after Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was stabbed in the neck on Aug. 22 while aboard a commuter light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina. Zarutska, 23 years old, was wearing headphones and was focused on her phone when she was stabbed from behind.

At the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Trump said “There are evil people and we have to confront that.”

“We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we don’t have a country.”

Conservative political figures including Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, have shared footage of the deadly attack and used it to paint Democrats as “soft on crime.”

Billionaire Elon Musk published several social media posts about the attack, calling for expedited death penalty sentences in cases with “unequivocal guilt.”

Charlotte’s mayor, Vi Lyles, and North Carolina’s governor, Josh Stein, are Democrats.

Police arrested the suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, and charged him with first degree murder.

Gov. Stein said he has asked for more funding for law enforcement recruitment in his latest budget. “We need more cops on the beat to keep people safe,” he said. Mayor Lyles said she’s “thinking hard about what safety really looks like in our city” after Zarutska’s death.

President Trump has made fighting crime in blue cities a cornerstone of his political policy. National Guard troops have already been deployed in Washington, D.C., to quell what Trump said was a crime emergency in the nation’s capital. He has said he plans to do the same in Chicago and New Orleans.

After Fatal Stabbing of Ukrainian Refugee, Trump Says U.S. Must Confront Crime Problem