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‘Try again, Psaki!’ WH doubles down on new narrative GOP to blame for defunding police

June 29, 2021 | | Print Article

White House press secretary Jen Psaki once again attempted to rebrand the Republicans as being the party that supports defunding the police after they refused to support Biden’s America Rescue Plan.

The “Defund the Police” movement has been a Democratic focal point since 2020 and they have received intense blowback for that rallying cry. Democrats are now trying to take a revisionist stance and entrap Republicans, insisting that the American Rescue Plan included $350 billion for state and local governments that could have been used for local police. President Joe Biden did not address that possibility when pushing his $1.9 trillion plan. Not one Republican voted for the legislation that was signed in March.

“Something one of the advisers said this weekend, Cedric Richmond, he said Republicans defunded the police by not supporting the American Rescue Plan,” Fox News’ Peter Doocy noted to Psakiin a press conference Monday. “But how is it that that is an argument to be made when the president never mentioned needing money for police to stop a crime wave when he was selling the American Rescue Plan?”

“Well, 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. As you know, [it] didn’t receive a single Republican vote. That funding has been used to keep cops on the beat,” Psaki contended.

(Video Credit: C-SPAN)

“At the time, it was sold that local police departments might have pandemic-related budget shortfalls, not we need to keep cops on the beat because there’s a crime wave,” Doocy asserted.

“I think that any local department would argue that keeping cops on the beat to keep communities safe when they had to, because of budget shortfalls, fire police is something that helped them address crime in their local communities,” Psaki replied and then stated that “it was a pretty good bill and piece of legislation.”

The talking point that Doocy alluded to was used by Biden advisor Cedric Richmond to attack Republicans on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Let’s talk about who defunded the police. When we were in Congress last year trying to pass a rescue plan — I’m sorry, not the rescue plan but an emergency relief plan for cities that were cash-strapped and laying off police and firefighters — it was the Republicans who objected to it. And, in fact, they didn’t get funding until the American Rescue Plan, which our plan allowed state and local governments to replenish their police departments and do the other things that are needed,” Richmond said engaging in masterful political revisionism.

“So look, Republicans are very good at staying on talking points of who says defund the police, but the truth is, they defunded the police, we funded crime intervention, and a whole bunch of other things,” he declared in an attempt to completely turn the issue upside down.

(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)

Democrats have strongly promoted the “Defund the Police” movement with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez leading the charge in support of it. The movement gained momentum after the death of George Floyd and was used as an excuse to go after police officers.

A number of cities cut their police funding following the promotion of the “Defund the Police” movement. New York City cut $1 billion from its $6 billion policing budget in August. Austin, Texas slashed its police budget by 35 percent in August as well. Seattle cut their police budget by 20 percent last December. Police budgets have allegedly been cut in nearly two dozen cities. Many of them have stated that is due to the pandemic but the timing is suspect.

Now that crime is skyrocketing in U.S. cities and the FBI is warning of a violent summer, they are attempting to shift blame for their actions to defund police across the nation. Democrats’ push to vilify police officers has backfired and support for law enforcement is stronger than ever.

On Twitter, the gaslighting by Psaki on the subject of defunding the police got a strong rebuke:

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Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
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