White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News's White House correspondent Peter Doocy about comments made by Biden advisor Cedric Richmond on Friday.
"Republicans defunded the police," Doocy quotes Richmond, "by not supporting the American Rescue Plan. But how is that an argument to be made when the president never mentioned needing money for police to stop a crime wave when he was selling the American Rescue Plan."
"The president did mention," Psaki said, "that the American Rescue Plan, the state and local funding, something that was supported by the President, a lot of Democrats who supported and voted for the bill, could help ensure local cops were kept on the beat in communities across the country."
"As you know, didn't receive a single Republican vote. That funding has been used to keep cops on the beat," she said.
"But at the time, that was about 'these local police departments might have a pandemic-related budget shortfall,' not 'we need to keep cops on the beat because there was a crime wave," Doocy said.
According to this video on CBS News, Cedric Richmond waffled a bit on the issue towards the end of the video saying that Biden "supports constitutional policing," but that funds could be used to hire and re-hire first responders who were laid off or furloughed because of the economic fallout of the pandemic.
"I think that any local department would argue that keeping cops on the beat to keep communities safe when they had to, because of budget shortfalls, fire police, is something that helps them address crime in their communities," Psaki replied.
Join and support independent free thinkers!
We’re independent and can’t be cancelled. The establishment media is increasingly dedicated to divisive cancel culture, corporate wokeism, and political correctness, all while covering up corruption from the corridors of power. The need for fact-based journalism and thoughtful analysis has never been greater. When you support The Post Millennial, you support freedom of the press at a time when it's under direct attack. Join the ranks of independent, free thinkers by supporting us today for as little as $1.
Remind me next month
To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy
