Few things have been more politically damaging than leftists’ push to defund law enforcement, and Democrats know it. Hence the White House’s recent attempt to pin the ‘defund the police’ movement and all of its electoral consequences on Republicans.
“Republicans are very good at staying on talking points of who says, ‘Defund the police,’” said top Biden aide Cedric Richmond. “But the truth is, they defunded the police.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated this claim during a press briefing on Monday and said that because Republicans voted against President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package, which addressed local budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic, the GOP is the party responsible for cities’ deprived police forces.
“The president did mention … that the American Rescue Plan, the state and local funding, something that was supported by the president, a lot of Democrats who supported and voted for the bill, could help ensure local cops were kept on the beat in communities across the country,” Psaki said. “As you know, [the bill] didn’t receive a single Republican vote. That funding has been used to keep cops on the beat.”
This is a ridiculous accusation that is easily debunked by the facts.
First, Republicans opposed Biden’s America Rescue Act not because they wanted to prevent local police departments from getting the funding that they need but because they wanted to prevent Democrats from sending millions of dollars to industries that didn’t need it. For example, Democrats wanted to include $100 million in the relief package to fund an underground rail project outside Silicon Valley. It was this kind of wasteful spending to which Republicans objected.
If Democrats had proposed a separate bill or even an amendment that specifically addressed funding for law enforcement, Republicans would have at least sat down to negotiate. After all, they were the ones who first introduced a criminal justice reform allocating additional resources to local police departments. And what did the Democrats do to South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott’s bill? They killed it.
Moreover, a quick purview of the country proves that it is Democratic officials, not Republicans, who are actively stripping their local police departments of funding in an attempt to appease leftist activists. Just this week, the Democrat-run Oakland City Council passed a budget that strips $17 million from the Police Department. Other blue cities, including Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New York City, and Baltimore, have made similar budget cuts, even as violent crime rises throughout these areas.
Democrats are responsible for the “defund the police” crisis, and they must own it. And they will if voters have anything to say about it.
