Virginia Democrat Don Beyer Slammed by Republican Opponent for Trying to Skirt His Defund the Police Ties

Republican Karina Lipsman slammed Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) for claiming to oppose defunding the police despite his voting record showing otherwise and accepting endorsements and campaign contributions from far-left groups that support the movement.

Beyer, who is running for reelection in Virginia’s Eight Congressional District, said during a campaign forum in August that he was “the opposite of the Defund the Police movement” and that Congress needed to “give the police more money.” In September, he said again at another forum, “we need to fund the police more… because the idea of defunding the police is crazy.” He added that “every police department” that the congressman knows of needs more funding.

“It’s nice that Don Beyer now says ‘defund the police’ is a bad slogan and conveniently claims he wants to support police,” Lipsman exclusively told Breitbart News. “But once again, another example of a promise made and a promise broken from Don Beyer, who co-sponsored and voted for a bill in Congress that, according to the government’s own official estimates by the CBO, the bill would cost more than 18,000 police departments around the country ‘significant amounts of money.’”

As Lipsman mentioned, last year, Beyer cosponsored and voted for H.R. 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021, which would “defund the police” by costing hundreds of millions of dollars each year, enact restrictions on policing practices, and eliminate protections for law enforcement. Republicans described the bill as a plan to “defund the police.”

The Democrats, in their anti-police voting spree last year, wanted to use the bill to eliminate qualified immunity for law enforcement. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) explained that “qualified immunity is an essential part of policing,” and eliminating it “would have a profoundly chilling effect on police officers and limit their ability and willingness to respond to critical incidents without hesitation.”

An analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) at the time said that the bill would cost more than 18,000 police departments around the country significant amounts of money. “More than 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide would be affected by the bill’s requirements,” the CBO said in a letter to top congressional Republicans.

“It’s time voters hold Don Beyer accountable for the towering stack of receipts showing his broken promises and failed record. If I break my promise to the people of Virginia’s 8th District, I hope they vote me out of office,” Lipsman added.

Beyer has also been endorsed by and has received campaign contributions from multiple groups aligned with wanting to defund the police. Beyer is currently endorsed by Planned Parenthood, which has backed his campaign and said in July 2020 that it “supports efforts to defund and divest from the police.”

In the past, Beyer has also been endorsed by the Sierra Club, who said in June 2020 that the organization wanted to add its “voices to support the Movement for Black Lives’s demands: Defund the police,” and has been endorsed by NARAL, who in April 2021 said it is “past time to defund the police.”

On the other hand, Lipsman, who said she “back[s] the blue 100 percent” of the time, received the endorsement of the Virginia Police Benevolent Association (VAPBA).

Joseph Wolosyzn, the head of VAPBA, said that he hoped the group’s endorsement of Lipsman would help sway voters who ultimately “respect the strong and efficient endorsement of our laws” in the upcoming election.

In August, when Lipsman received the endorsement, she stated that he was “deeply honored” and “back[s] the blue 100 percent” of the time. The Republican also indicated that she is “deeply concerned” that the “current leadership has allowed a crime wave to hit Virginia’s 8th District.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss and Truth Social @JacobBliss.