Since early last summer the Democrats have been calling for the defunding of the police and in fact, a few Democratic-run cities actually did cut funding for the police. That turned out very badly for them as crime soared in those same cities.
It has also been blamed for the Republicans unexpectedly picking up House seats in the 2020 election. Democrats were expected to pick up 10 to 15 seats but instead, they lost 12.
The White House then tried to flip the script and accuse Republicans of defunding the police by opposing Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan. But, two things. Number one is that the $350 billion that Democrats claimed was for the police and firefighters.
The bill never said the money would definitely go to the police. The cities could spend it on social workers or other replacements for the police, but they could spend it on them if they wanted to.
The second thing is there was a lot of other spending that had nothing to do with COVID-19. When voting on any bill, you need to consider the entire bill before deciding on how you want to vote. Therefore voting against the bill depends on more than one expenditure.
But, if the Republicans were smart they would offer a stand-alone bill for $350 billion with all funds specifically for firefighters and police officers. Force the Democrats to vote on it.
The Democratic-friendly, Washington Post’s fact-checker weighed in on the White House claim that Republicans defended the police and they issued them three Pinocchios for the false accusation. This is a paper that goes out of their way to cover for Democrats unless it is absolutely impossible to do.
This week, Republicans launched a counterattack with a new highlight reel of Democrats calling to defund the police. The Republican Study Committee, the largest House conservative caucus, released a video compilation of Democrats arguing for defunding the police.
“We looked for an example of a Republican official calling for defunding or ‘reimagining’ police, but couldn’t find anything,” the Republican Study Committee said. “Democrats can’t say the same – in fact, here are over two dozen examples of when they have.”
The collection of Democrats calling to cut funds for policing features Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Jamaal Bowman of New York, and Cori Bush of Missouri.
