T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert reportedly warned in a private Facebook post that Democrats risk losing the election to President Trump in November by embracing calls to defund police departments across the U.S.
Politico reported that Sievert wrote to friends and family in last week’s post that if Democrats “want to LOSE THIS ELECTION, we should keep saying and repeating the phrase ‘Defund the Police’ and associate the phrase with our candidates.”
“This phrase is a sure fire way to hand Donald Trump and many R’s in Congress another term,” Sievert reportedly said.
Sievert declined to explain his views further to Politico when contacted, and T-Mobile did not return the news outlet’s request for comment.
“[I]f the mantra becomes ‘Defund the Police’ or worse, if we start to riot and tear down buildings or incite violence in response, the other guy wins. THE OTHER GUY WINS,” Sievert reportedly added. “And the changes we want, and demand, don’t come about anytime soon.”
Sievert took over as the company’s CEO earlier this year after T-Mobile completed a merger with Sprint valued at $26 billion. The company also moved to stop ad placements on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” as advertisers fled the program earlier this year over comments Carlson made about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Trump has sought for months to tie his opponent in the November election, former Vice President Joe Biden (D), to calls to defund the police, which became a rallying cry among some advocates during protests this summer over the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.
Biden and other Democrats have instead argued for reform to law enforcement.
Officials in Seattle moved to scale back funding of the city’s police department last month, but the vast majority of the department’s funding remained intact.