A new ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday, noting Americans’ feelings about how President Biden is handling crime, had as its heading: “Biden is Rated Poorly on Handling Crime.”
The poll found that as opposed to 38% of Americans approving of Biden’s actions in response to soaring crime rates, a whopping 48% disapproved. The poll stated, “The number of Americans seeing crime as an extremely serious problem in the United States is at a more than 20-year high, Joe Biden is underwater in trust to handle it.”
The poll, conducted between June 27-30, stated of Americans, “55 percent think increasing funding for police departments would reduce violent crime, 51 percent say the same about stricter enforcement of existing gun laws and 46 percent say so about stricter gun control laws.”
“With an eye toward the 2022 midterm elections, Biden’s party shows potential vulnerability on crime in two hotspots: the Midwest, where the Republican Party leads the Democrats in trust to handle crime, 43-28 percent; and in the suburbs, a 43-31 percent GOP advantage,” the poll noted.
The Democratic Party, as evidenced by statements from such luminaries as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki amongst others, has recently shown an interest in convincing Americans it was actually the GOP, rather than the Democratic Party, that had blocked the protection of Americans.
As The Daily Wire reported on Tuesday, “During a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki doubled down on the claim made by Biden adviser Cedric Richmond over the weekend when he claimed that Republicans were the ones who defunded the police.”
Peter Doocy of Fox News asked, “Something one of the advisors said this weekend — Cedric Richmond — he said, ‘Republicans defunded the police by not supporting the American Rescue Plan.’ 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?”
Psaki responded, “Well, the President did mention that the American Rescue Plan, they’ll — 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.”
As The Daily Wire noted, “The GOP quickly responded by releasing a list highlighting just a few examples of big-name Democrats who they say called for either defunding the police or reallocating police resources over the last year:”
- Joe Biden said he supported reallocating police resources during the campaign.
- Kamala Harris said, “I applaud Eric Garcetti” for defunding the Los Angeles police.
- Harris said, “we have to reimagine public safety” while discussing lowering the police presence in communities.
- Biden’s Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said officials must heed calls to “decrease police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of police in our lives.”
- As Boston Mayor, Biden’s Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh proposed a budget to divert funding from law enforcement.
- Biden’s Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke supported efforts to “defund the police.”
- Democrat Rep. Val Demings called the Minneapolis City Council “very thoughtful” for voting to dismantle the police.
- Nancy Pelosi and fellow House Democrats refused to criticize the Minneapolis City Council for defunding the police.
- Democrat Maxine Waters called for protestors to “get more confrontational” with police.
- Democrat Ilhan Omar called for dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department.
- Democrat Cori Bush called for defunding police as a congresswoman-elect.
- A Democratic National Convention panelist advocated for defunding the police: “We’re talking about abolishing the police…ICE…prisons.”
- A Minneapolis City Council member defended defunding the police but said she didn’t “have all the answers” on who would respond to violent crime.
- Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn compared federal law enforcement to the Nazi Gestapo, and later ignored looting and arson in D.C., claiming the only violence he saw in D.C. was from the police.
- Democrat Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he doesn’t want police officers to respond to rape.
- Former Democrat Rep. Joe Kennedy said he supported Maxine Waters’ call to confront the police.
A previous version of this article misstated the title of Jen Psaki. She is the press secretary, not the chief of staff.