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Twitter is drafting Dallas Police Chief David Brown for a presidential run

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July 11, 2016 at 1:25 p.m. EDT
Dallas Police Chief David Brown briefs the media about the shooting in Dallas. (Tony Gutierrez/AP)
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In the face of unspeakable tragedy, Dallas Police Chief David Brown has won over the country with his grace, passion and gentle humor.

Now Twitter wants him to run for president.

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During a news conference late Monday morning, Brown fielded questions for nearly an hour, admitting he was so exhausted — “running on fumes” — that he was having trouble remembering things. He said he was hugging officers whenever he could. He gave blunt answers to questions about race: “I’ve been black a long time, man.”

And he spoke about his officers living on crummy salaries ($44,000 to start in Dallas) while society placed more and more burdens on them: drug addiction, failures in mental health treatment, even stray dogs.

The nomination process immediately commenced.

There was this Lady Gaga tweet and reply:

His delegates piled up.

His support seemed bipartisan:

Even political commentators and reporters got behind the idea:

Brown certainly has a compelling life story to tell from the stump. His brother, son and former partner have been killed. He knows what victims go through. And he knows how to lead.

“There are some people who would just shut down, and they would have others conducting the interviews,” Keith Humphrey, the police chief of Norman, Okla., told my colleague Theresa Vargas. “But that is not David. He realized the community wants to hear from him. The nation wants to hear from him.”

And he was brutally honest about what people could do to help.

“Get off that protest line,” he said, “and put an application in.”

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