Biden tells Dems to get tough on crime to own the GOP

Joe Biden is signaling to his own party to toughen up on crime leading up to the 2024 election, vowing to strike down a progressive Washington, D.C. citywide crime law that former President Trump called on him to kill, or "stand with murderers, rapists and carjackers and violent criminals." 

As reported by NBC News, the Democratic Party's focus on police reform and soft-on-crime policies due to the 2020 George Floyd riots led the left-wing D.C. city council to nearly-unanimously pass revisions to the Criminal Code Act of 2022 that would weaken the punishments for crimes such as carjacking and robbery. At the time, Trump called the legislation "a horrific catalog of the sickest and most twisted ideas of the radical Democrats' defund the police crusade." 



In a video message, the 2024 Republican candidate said Congress "should immediately send a resolution to Joe Biden's desk rejecting this weak-on-crime agenda."

"Biden will then face the stark choice; does he stand with murderers, rapists and carjackers and violent criminals, or does he stand with the law-abiding citizens of our nation's capital?" 

Now, Biden is falling in line with Trump's wishes in an effort to send a "national message to fellow Democrats about how he thinks they should address Republican criticism of the nation's rising crime rates," according to NBC.

"I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule – but I don't support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections – such as lowering penalties for carjackings," the president tweeted on Thursday. "If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did – I'll sign it."

After Democratic incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago only garnered 17 percent of the vote in the Tuesday elections for her city, this sent a signal to the White House that even Democratic voters are tired of the crime.

According to NBC, the White House is "planning a full-throated effort to present [Biden] as tough on crime and try to chip away at any Republican advantage on an issue that has put many Democrats on the defensive."

However, the Biden administration is still shirking the blame for the uptick in crime, with White House spokesperson Andrew Bates telling the publication, "Congressional Republicans need to commit here and now to joining with President Biden — not obstructing him — in fighting the rising crime rate he inherited."

"Their years' long campaign to slash law enforcement funding in the name of ideology couldn't be more at odds with the country," he added, referring to calls from certain republicans to defund the FBI due to its partisan nature.