Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that the Democratic Party had never taken the position that the police should be defunded.
Anchor Ana Cabrera said, “Let’s turn to the spate of violence and crime happening across the country. The president is set to address this today. Republicans aren’t going to let voters forget the calls by some Democrats to defund the police. Does your party need to do more on the messaging front to prove they are not soft on crime?”
Hirono said, “The fact is that we’ve never taken the position as a party that we should defund the police. I am a progressive Democrat. I have never said that we should defund the police. Clearly, there are a lot of things we need to do on the law enforcement side, including, by the way, addressing the rise in domestic violent extremism, the prevalence of gun violence that is occurring on a way, way too regular basis in our country, and yet we can’t get even the most basic gun legislation through. Why? Because there are so many Republicans who won’t go there. So, these are all areas we need to focus on using facts. The fact is that there is a rise and concern about domestic extremism in our country, and we better face up to that.”
She added, “The Democrats do not stand for defunding police. The police have a major role to play, especially community policing and reducing the incidents of violence and crime in our communities.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.