SOTU: Biden Calls on Congress to ‘FUND the Police’

President Joe Biden used his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to call on Congress to “FUND the police” and to oppose local efforts by his own party and left-wing activists to “defund the police” in major cities amid a crime wave.

In remarks as prepared for delivery, Biden included the phrase “FUND the police” in ALL CAPS to emphasize the point:

I know what works: Investing in crime preventionand community police officers who’ll walk the beat, who’ll know the neighborhood, and who can restore trust and safety.

So let’s not abandon our streets. Or choose between safety and equal justice.

Let’s come together to protect our communities, restore trust, and hold law enforcement accountable.

That’s why the Justice Department required body cameras, banned chokeholds, and restricted no-knock warrants for its officers.

That’s why the American Rescue Plan provided $350 Billion that cities, states, and counties can use to hire more police and invest in proven strategies like community violence interruption—trusted messengers breaking the cycle of violence and trauma and giving young people hope.

We should all agree: The answer is not to Defund the police. The answer is to FUND the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.

I ask Democrats and Republicans alike: Pass my budget and keep our neighborhoods safe.

During the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Biden agreed with proposals to “redirect” police funding, and blamed police for violence throughout the country. His campaign would later claim he opposed “defund the police.”

Democratic Party mayors across the country cut funding to police, including in Los Angeles, where Mayor Eric Garcetti, an early Biden ally, cut $150 million — about 10% of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) budget — from the police.

The Biden administration has consistently repeated a debunked claim that it was Republicans who opposed funding the police.

In his speech Wednesday, Biden also focused on gun control as a means to end “gun violence,” which he blamed for crime.

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.