WATCH: Joe Biden Renews Promise for ‘Police Reform’ in Midst of Nationwide Crime Wave

President Joe Biden renewed his pledge Tuesday to pursue “police reform” and “criminal justice” reform, even as violent crime surges across the nation and Democratic leaders are trying to back away from earlier pledges to “defund the police.”

In an address to a holiday party for the Democratic National Committee — after canceling other parties due to concerns about spreading the coronavirus — Biden cited the increasingly unpopular push for “police reform” as a way for Democrats to win:

This battle is not over.  This door is not closed.  We have to keep up the fight and get it done, because our democracy depends on it.  (Applause.)

And, folks, there’s so much more to do: police reform, criminal justice reform, immigration, gun violence, the
courts, protecting a woman’s right to choose.  All these critical issues.

And as we fight to make progress on all of them, I hope you remember what got us to the White House in the first place.  In 2020, we won as a unified Democratic Party — more unified than ever.  (Applause.)  Now we look at 2022.  I want to tell my Republican friends: Get ready, pal.  You’re going in for a problem.

At least 12 major American cities have set records for homicides this year, a fact establishment media are starting to report.

The White House has struggled to acknowledge the crime wave and its causes. On Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki again attributed the crime wave to the pandemic, rather than Democrats’ support for anti-police protests and policies last year.

Many Democrat-run cities cut their police budgets to appease calls by the Black Lives Matter movement to “defund the police.” But they are now struggling to maintain order, and some are reversing course. On Tuesday, for example, San Francisco Mayor London Breed called for additional funding to police to combat a rise in violent crime in her city.

She added: “It is time for the reign of criminals to end. It comes to an end when are more aggressive with law enforcement & less tolerant of all the bulls*t that has destroyed our city.” A Rasmussen poll Wednesday showed 68% of likely American voters believe that crime is growing worse.

Efforts at police reform faltered in Congress last year because Democrats refused to accept more moderate reforms proposed by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and supported by many other Republicans.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.