A top House Democrat leader lambasted an MSNBC host for accusing him of scapegoating the “Defund the Police” (DTP) movement and then he went further and said the DTP movement was a chokehold on the Democratic Party. Personally, I love the DTP movement. Nothing pushes people towards conservatives more than the fear of dying on the way to work. It isn’t even an incentive for minorities, who are dead set against defunding the police.
DTP has been blamed for Democrats losing 12 seats in the house rather than gaining the 10 to 15 they were expected to gain. Not even Biden was for the DTP movement until he was elected anyway. Once in office, he flip-flopped on that, too. Democratic House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina responded angrily to Mehdi Hasan, a host on MSNBC.
Hasan claimed that focus groups found that swing-state voters do not care about the defunding of police. Clyburn swatted that falsehood with both hands.
Clyburn said:
“That is absolutely poppycock!”
“I know what I’m talking about! I’m out here with the voters every day! I did a town hall meeting last night, in Jasper County, South Carolina, and I can tell you, ‘defund the police’ is a non-starter! Even with black people!”
“And if you don’t think that’s true, then look at the results of what just happened in New York City’s election!”
“The proof is in the pudding! I know what I’m talking about, I talk to people every day, and ‘defund the police’ is a chokehold around the Democratic Party!”
The Democrat who won the NYC Democratic nomination for mayor is a law and order guy who won over candidates who want to defund the police. And NYC isn’t even in a swing state.
The battle on MSNBC was the latest skirmish in a war within the Democratic Party between the far-left progressives who want to steer the party’s messaging to more extreme positions, and the moderate centrists who are resisting them.
The “defunding of police” departments has been so unpopular that the White House has attempted unsuccessfully to accuse Republicans of defunding police.