Ever since I heard Biden senior advisor Cedric Richmond tell Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that it’s Republicans who are “defunding” our police, I’ve tried to ignore this story, but it’s so absurd — even by Democrats’ low standards — I can no longer.
A day later, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki unleashed the same ridiculousness, assuming the entire country has been asleep the past 14 months.
Absolutely shameless. Under questioning from Fox's Peter Doocy, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki argues it's *Republicans* who have been defunding the police and not supporting law enforcement because they didn't vote for Biden's stimulus boondoggle the American Rescue Plan. pic.twitter.com/pIwfFkonu1
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 28, 2021
The slavish media, unsurprisingly, rushed to promote the lie.
Dana Milbank, one of the most dishonest columnists in America, wrote an Orwellian Washington Post piece called “Even the Squad is more pro-police than these Republicans.”
“Who Really Wants to Defund the Police?” asked Professor Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg.
“The GOP should be held accountable for deserting law and order,” zany columnist Jennifer Rubin claimed, then added, “their ‘law and order’ rhetoric and attacks on Democrats cannot conceal their votes nor their excuses for four years of the MAGA cult leader’s lawlessness.”
I highly doubt a bill focused on increasing law enforcement manpower would have support from folks like radical Rep. Cori Bush, whose 2020 campaign theme was about defunding the police.
The left’s rationale is thus:
Republicans voted against President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion COVID boondoggle this spring, which included $350 billion for state and local governments that theoretically could be spent on police. Therefore, every GOP politician is anti-police?
But voting against a bloated federal spending package isn’t the same as directly cutting law enforcement funding, which is what Democrats who support “defund the police” advocate. No polls show support for the movement among conservatives.
Biden also never touted his “American Rescue Plan” as a way to curtail surging violence. It was only a week ago, in his bizarre crime speech, that the president encouraged states to use some of the $350 billion for policing.
A USA Today poll earlier this year found 34% of Democrats favored defunding police, compared to only 18% of all Americans. Two in three Democrats support “redistributing” parts of police budgets toward social programs, compared with only one in six Republicans.
And of course, many hard-line progressives have openly called to defund or abolish cops.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and, yes, Kamala Harris, all backed defunding efforts to some extent.
When Barack Obama warned that anti-police slogans could hurt Democrats, Omar shot back at the former president, explaining it was “not a slogan but a policy demand.”
The repercussions are now being felt. Backed by millions of dollars from gullible white liberals, Black Lives Matter’s heresy and antics divided America and vilified cops.
Leftist city councils embraced the idea of defunding cops, including the delusional Minneapolis cabal, where homicides are up 64% compared to last year, and a judge recently ordered the city to hire more police.
All cities defunding police are run by Democrats.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday revealed Biden’s dismal ratings on handling crime, with only 38% of Americans approving.
The poll also revealed that the number of Americans who saw crime as an “extremely serious problem” reached a 20-year high.
While Republicans argue that Democrats’ efforts to defund police and promote cashless bail contribute to the crime wave, Democrats predictably blame guns and poverty.
They probably should stick to those myths, rather than transparently trying to satisfy a growing, ignorant base that supports anti-law enforcement policies.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
