On Monday’s “CNN Tonight,” Democratic strategist and CNN Contributor Paul Begala stated that “a lot of” Democrats “are just hiding” on crime and saying, “I don’t want to talk about crime, I’m going to talk about abortion rights, I’m going to talk about health care.” He also stated that “too few Democrats have the guts to run on” a crime message of more police and fewer guns and “too many Democrats are too elitist and not in touch with people on the streets.”
Begala said, “Well, crime’s an issue. And in my party, there are sort of three aproaches: One, the far left says defund the police. That’s a disaster politically, and, I think, substantively. We want to reform the police, but defund the police is a catastrophe. Two, a lot of them are just hiding, just cut and run, I don’t want to talk about crime, I’m going to talk about abortion rights, I’m going to talk about health care. … There’s a third approach, which is, deal with it, address it. I think Democrats are better on crime.”
Begala specifically cited Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) running ads on endorsements she’s received from law enforcement officials, including a Republican, praised Biden’s approach on crime, and cited Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) in her Senate campaign. He added, “I think the formula for Democrats is pretty simple, more cops, fewer guns. … But too few Democrats have the guts to run on it.”
He later added, “The majority of criminals in this country are white. Do you ever hear that? … Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) helps run a state, Alabama, that has the fourth-highest murder rate of all 50 states.” And “Democrats have to have the courage to lean into it and not listen to Republican talking points. They all say, oh, the cities are terrible. Well, guess what? Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) from Bakersfield, CA. Its murder rate is twice the murder rate of San Francisco, Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) hometown. … By the way, Lexington, KY in Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) home state, twice the murder rate of New York City…per capita.”
Begala concluded, “I think that too many Democrats are too elitist and not in touch with people on the streets. … In Minneapolis, the African American wards rejected defunding the police way more than the white wards did. Why don’t elites know that? … By the way, I will give him credit for this, Joe Biden…has great credibility in the communities, because he’s actually walked the walk.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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