On Thursday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) responded to a question on whether he thinks Democrats will be tied to comparisons between ICE and Nazis when abolish ICE is compared to pushes to defund the police by saying that “the only people I hear using the term defund the police anymore are Republicans saying that Democrats stand for that,” and “I do understand, though, why…Republicans want to distract from the issues.”
After playing video of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D), co-host Joe Mathieu asked, “Let’s start with the rhetoric, do you worry Democrats will be tied to rhetoric like this when we hear abolish ICE equated with defund the police? Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was on the program last evening decrying Democrats’ use of the term Nazi in that case. How worried are you about this moment we’re in?”
Boyle responded, “First, the only people I hear using the term defund the police anymore are Republicans saying that Democrats stand for that, when that’s patently false. I have never stood for that and have, actually, publicly, going back years, criticized that sort of rhetoric that, again, I don’t know one elected Democratic colleague of mine in Congress who supports that or uses that phrase. I do understand, though, why Ted Cruz and other Republicans want to distract from the issues. Because, let’s face it, they’re very afraid about this November midterm election. We just saw a special election in Texas in which a Democratic candidate won a district that Donald Trump had won last November in a landslide. So, we’re in an environment right now in which Democrats are overperforming, by double digits, on average, every single special election that’s taken place ever since January of last year. So, it’s not surprising to me that Republicans want to talk about anything other than their pitiful record in office.”
Later, Boyle added that he thinks reforming ICE is the right policy.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett