Democrats who refused to even consider a police reform bill introduced last summer by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) are now calling for a police reform bill.
The latest example is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who tweeted on Friday:
Open your eyes and unplug your ears, @SenateGOP. We need to finally pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. And we need to finally pass common-sense gun safety legislation. How many more people need to die while you sit on your hands and do nothing?
Fox News contributor Guy Benson pointed out that Warren and her party ignored Scott’s bill, writing, “Open your eyes and look at the Senator whose police reform bill you filibustered just a few months ago, refusing to even debate his reasonable opening proposal.” Benson included a photo of Scott with his tweet.
As The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti reported last June, Democrats blocked Scott’s police reform bill.
“The bill failed before its text ever made it to the floor. Democrats were able to marshal their caucus to defeat a vote designed to bring the issue to the floor for debate and killed the bill 55-45. A total of 60 votes would have been necessary to move the bill forward,” Zanotti wrote.
Three Democrat senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Doug Jones of Alabama, and Angus King of Maine (who identifies as an Independent yet caucuses with Democrats) — voted with Republicans to bring the bill to the Senate floor for debate.
“The bill did not ban the use of chokeholds outright, preferring instead to warn departments to craft their own policies against the practice or risk losing federal funds. The bill also shied away from outlawing so-called “no-knock” warrants, preferring instead to establish a national database to track those warrants’ use and abuse,” Zanotti reported.
Then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer trashed Scott’s bill, The Daily Wire’s Eric Quintanar reported at the time. Schumer called the bill “deeply flawed and not salvageable” in a joint letter with then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). The trio claimed the bill was “so threadbare and lacking in substance that it does not even provide a proper baseline for negotiations.”
The refusal by Democrats to even consider the Scott bill prevented any reforms from being passed, something Democrats indicated was perfectly fine, wishing instead to wait until after the election. The statements from Democrats last summer indicated police reforms — which they said were urgently needed — could wait until after the presidential election.
“Instead of accepting Republican reforms that Democrats also want but they say don’t go far enough, the Left would rather wait until they may get everything they want, assuming that not only does former Vice President Joe Biden win the election, but Democrats regain control of the Senate by enough of a majority that they can push through whatever bills they want, as they could during the first two years of the Obama administration,” The Daily Wire reported at the time.