White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany slammed Democratic leaders during Tuesday’s press conference over the “defund the police” movements that many Democrats have given into by showing how violent crime has increased in those areas.
“I would like to end just by highlighting a troubling trend that I think we’ve seen play out across the country, and I believe we have a few graphics to illustrate this. It pertains to the ‘Defund the Police’ movement,” McEnany said toward the end of the press conference. “And when you look at, across the country, the ties of defunding the police with increases in violence, it’s a cause for concern. As we saw in the beginning of this administration, violent crime was starting to come down, and then bring in the ‘Defund the Police’ movement.”
“In Los Angeles, you had L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti proposing a cut of $150 million from the LAPD. L.A. Mayor Garcetti said this: ‘It starts someplace, and we have to say we are going to be who we want to be, or we’re going to continue being the killers that we are,’ was his quote, in support of the defund movement,” McEnany said in her first example. “And as a result, we saw a 14 percent rise in homicides this year over last year.”
“In Minneapolis, the ‘Defund the Police’ movement was afoot as well, with a unanimous vote in Minneapolis City and their council to dismantle the police. And you had Minneapolis City council member Jeremiah Ellison saying, ‘This is one action of many that we need to take on the road to a more equitable and just system that keeps people safe.’ In fact, it did not keep people safe,'” McEnany said for her second example. “We’ve seen a 94 percent increase in homicides compared to last year in Minneapolis.”
“And then, finally, in New York City, ‘Defund the Police’ — you had the New York City Council voting to cut police budget by $1 billion. You had Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying, ‘Defund the police means defunding the police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math,'” McEnany gave as her final example. “So it wasn’t enough for AOC. But you did have New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio saying, ‘We think it’s the right thing to do.’ It was absolutely not the right thing to do, as we’ve seen a 177 percent increase in shootings from July 2019 in New York.”
“When you defund the police, there are consequences,” McEnany concluded. “And that’s where the Democrats of today stand. And, unfortunately, we’ve seen a corresponding rise in violence in these Democrat cities, and it’s not acceptable.”
Another example, which McEnany did not mention, comes out of Portland where the city disbanded their gun violent unit at the start of last month and ended up finishing the month with the most homicides in over 30 years.
WATCH:
.@PressSec outlines the disturbing trend of crime increases in areas whose leaders have decided to “Defund the Police”. pic.twitter.com/ZU8DDSgbDl
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 4, 2020
Earlier in the press conference, McEnany slammed congressional Democrats for reportedly stalling in getting the next round of COVID-19 checks out to American citizens.
“The environmental bill the President signed this morning, it was passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress,” a reporter said. “Both Republicans and Democrats signed on to that legislation. Can you explain why there were no Democrats at the ceremony or even mentioned in the President’s remarks?”
“The President is very proud of what happened today: the single largest investment in America’s national parks and public lands in history,” McEnany responded. “The most significant conservation achievement since Teddy Roosevelt. It won the support of more than 850 conservation groups. And it provides $900 million a year in permanent funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund.”
McEnany then turned up the heat, adding, “And you’re asking about recognition of congressional Democrats right now, and the only thing that we’re recognizing about congressional Democrats right now is how appalling it is that there are Americans who are going without paychecks, because they refuse to partner with Martha McSally, Republicans, and the President in ensuring that those payments go out.”
WATCH:
.@PressSec just completely obliterated Congressional Democrats 🔥 pic.twitter.com/xkCzrYlZXZ
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 4, 2020