Former President Donald Trump said Saturday night in Florida Democrats are spreading “disinformation” that Republicans have defunded police.
“So now they [Democrats] are getting killed by defund police, which they are doing by the way,” Trump said. “But they are getting absolutely killed.”
“There’s a word [called] ‘disinformation,'” Trump continued. “If you say it enough, and keep saying it, just keep saying it, they [people] will start to believe it.”
“We can’t let that happen,” he stated. “Because now they are saying ‘it was the Republicans’ fault.'”
“It’s disinformation. They say it again and again and again and after months and months of hearing, people begin to believe the Democrats’ claim,” Trump reiterated.
Trump’s comments come as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) doubled down on defunding police, asserting June 27 the crime surge is just “hysteria” and that making “responsible decisions about what [funds] to allocate” away from police departments is “important.”
But when White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked June 1 if she could name one Republican who wanted to defund the police, she could not.
Even so, establishment Democrats are attempting to portray themselves as supporters of law enforcement.
“We are the only party in Washington right now funding the police,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) told the Times, “even as we fight for important reforms and racial justice.”
Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), candidate for Senate against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), has also accused Republicans of being the anti-police party.
“When it came to supporting resources for local communities, including law enforcement, not one Republican voted in favor of that funding,” she said. “When first responders needed them the most — one of those moments — they just didn’t deliver.”
The establishment Democrats’ attempts to change the narrative may be due to a May poll that indicated 30 percent of Americans sometimes feel unsafe in public as crime rages in American cities.
Breitbart News reported June 23 that homicides have increased 58 percent in Democrat-run Atlanta, 533 percent in Democrat-run Portland, and 37 percent in Democrat-run Philadelphia. Shootings are up 54 percent in Democrat-run New York City, 51 percent in Democrat-run Los Angeles, and 18 percent in Democrat-run Chicago.
- President Joe Biden said he supported reallocating police resources during his campaign.
- Vice President Kamala Harris said, “I applaud Eric Garcetti” for defunding the Los Angeles police, and said, “We have to reimagine public safety” while discussing lowering the police presence in communities.
- Biden’s Associate Attorney General, Vanita Gupta, said officials must heed calls to “decrease police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of police in our lives.”
- As Boston Mayor, Biden’s Secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh, proposed a budget to divert funding from law enforcement.
- Biden’s Assistant Attorney General, Kristen Clarke, wrote an op-ed for Newsweek in 2020 supporting efforts to “defund the police.”
- Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) called the Minneapolis City Council “very thoughtful” for voting to dismantle the police.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and fellow House Democrats refused to criticize the Minneapolis City Council for defunding the police.
- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) told protesters to “get more confrontational” with police.
- Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called for dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department.
- Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) called for defunding police as a congresswoman-elect.
- A Democratic National Convention panelist advocated for defunding the police.
- A Minneapolis City Council member defended defunding the police but said she didn’t “have all the answers” on who would respond to violent crime.
- House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) compared federal law enforcement to the Nazi Gestapo. He later ignored looting and arson in D.C., claiming the only violence he saw in D.C. was from police.
- Democrat Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he doesn’t want police officers to respond to rape.