New York Democrat Rep. Mondaire Jones, who previously backed defunding the police, has since changed course.
Jones, who switched congressional districts to run in House Democrat Campaign Chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s (D-NY) district, forcing him to move districts, is now in a tough election battle in the upcoming primary in the Empire State, the New York Post first reported.
In June 2020, he told Wenonah Hauter, the founder of the NGO Food & Water Watch, that “We need to end mass incarceration and legalize cannabis and defund the police.”
Additionally, in July 2020, the congressman said in an interview with Katie Halper, “Let me go back and say we need to, you know, talk about defunding the police, cutting that funding and reallocating it to social workers, and youth employment.”
In fact, after President Joe Biden’s most recent State of the Union address, where he called for funding police departments, Jones said, “Black Americans don’t want to send police officers out of their communities.”
However, after numerous polls in 2021 and 2022 showed increasing numbers of people opposing the defunding of the police movement, and George Soros-funded San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recently recalled, in part, for not properly prosecuting crime, Jones has flip-flopped on his views.
Regardless of the congressman’s past remarks, he is now saying something different. In an interview with Huffington Post last week, when asked about having any “specific rhetorical phrase that … progressives have employed that hurts more than it helps,” he said, “Defund the police.”
“You’ve got leaders of the [Working Families Party] saying ‘defund the police’ was not the best phrase to articulate a vision for how to move toward humane, more effective policing that doesn’t brutalize black and brown communities while still keeping them safe,” the congressman said, in contradiction to his past statements.
In response to Jones’ revelations on defunding the police, his spokesman Bill Neidhardt told the Post:
Rep. Jones believes New Yorkers deserve to feel, and actually be, safe. That’s why, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, he has led the fight to end gun violence in America and provide law enforcement with the resources to stop the rise of white supremacist domestic terrorism. He also knows we must address the root causes of crime like underinvestment in public schools and housing, and that effective policing does not require brutalizing black and brown communities.
The Post added that his spokesman could not provide any examples when pressed, giving examples of “white supremacist domestic terrorism.” Instead, Neidhardt reportedly added, “Are you implying hate crimes in New York City didn’t increase 76% in the last year alone?”
Curtis Sliwa, Guardian Angels founder, told the Post that Jones’ recent change in talking points is “about polling.” Sliwa added, “His consultants are telling him, ‘Hey you gotta start moving toward the center.’”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
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