Jen Psaki Gets Debunked By Fact Checker Over Claim GOP Wants To Defund Police, Gets 3 Pinocchios
The Washington Post debunked the Biden administration’s false claim that Republicans are the party of defunding the police, a Dem debate from the start that the left is still pushing in some fashion to this day.
The claims have come from multiple people in the Biden administration including Cedric Richmond, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Richmond said:
“Let’s talk about who defunded the police. When we were in Congress last year trying to pass an emergency relief plan for cities that were cash-strapped and laying off police and firefighters, it was the Republicans who objected to it. And in fact, they didn’t get funding until the American Rescue Plan, which, our plan allowed state and local governments to replenish their police departments and do the other things that are needed. So look, Republicans are very good at staying on talking points of who says ‘defund the police,’ but the truth is, they defunded the police.”
“That was voted into law by Democrats just a couple of months ago,” Psaki said. “Some might say that the other party was for defunding the police; I’ll let others say that, but that’s a piece.”
Enter The Washington Post’s fact-checker.
The Post said that even though Republicans voted against Biden’s stimulus package, “no one voted to cut, or defund, anything.”
“Rather, Democrats proposed $350 billion in emergency funds for state and local governments, and Republicans voted against those extra funds. That’s not a reduction.
“In this case, there’s not even a line item in the bill to attach to the White House’s claim that Republicans are trying to defund the police.”
The Post fact-checker gave the Biden administration the dreaded three Pinocchios for the false claim saying “there is little basis to claim that Republicans are trying to ‘defund the police.’
Now that that is cleared up and if you needed any more proof look at Rashida Tlaib calling to defund ICE, DHS, ICE, CBP the other day.
From The Washington Post:
In this case, there’s not even a line item to attach to the White House’s claim that Republicans are trying to defund the police.
The American Rescue Plan devoted $350 billion to “state and local aid,” a pot of money that was designed for a variety of budget-plugging purposes. Among those is keeping police, teachers and emergency medical technicians at work, but going strictly by the bill text, lawmakers had no guarantee that police would get a slice of the pie.
What’s more, voting against a one-time infusion of cash is not the same as voting to cut funding, so there is little basis to claim that Republicans are trying to “defund the police.”
Psaki and the White House are on more solid ground by framing this talking point in terms of the COPS program, which some Republicans did vote to cut funding for as recently as the Trump administration. That’s the only thing keeping this talking point from being a Four Pinocchio claim.
Overall, we award Three Pinocchios.
From Yahoo:
Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) said Tuesday that “we must eliminate funding” for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the agencies “terrorize migrant communities.”
“Time after time we have seen it as advocates on the ground, as human service agencies on the ground. To continue to see over and over again that these agencies are inept to humanely guiding migrants through our immigration system,” the progressive congresswoman said during a conversation on digital walls, borders and deportations with Julie Mao from Just Futures Law.
“Instead they further continue to terrorize migrant communities located within our communities,” she said.
Tlaib’s comments come just weeks after a bipartisan group of lawmakers from Texas penned an essay in the Dallas Morning News warning that the U.S. is on track to receive “the highest number of total yearly border crossings in two decades.”
The essay, co-authored by Republican Senator John Cornyn, Republican Representative Tony Gonzales and Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar, noted nearly 930,000 migrants including “almost 80,000 unaccompanied children” have illegally crossed the border into America in the past 8 months.