2024 GOP presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott is renewing his criticism of the Left's calls to defund the police, this time focusing on the nation's capital where a crime surge has terrorized residents and endangered visitors to Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday, the South Carolina Republican attacked Washington, D.C. Democrats for allowing criminals to get away with murder while continuing to push their progressive anti-law enforcement agenda.
This is the same city that wanted to take even more power from police just months ago.
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) July 12, 2023
The radical Left is the party of fear and chaos. https://t.co/gm08haSiq6
Citing a Daily Caller article, in which the Chairman for the Council of the District of Columbia slammed Democrats for failing to address rising incidents of crime and violence in the city, Scott recalled that it is the same city that "wanted to take even more power from police just months ago."
Although a May CNN article stated that Scott once said his 2020 police reform bill would "defund" local police departments' federal grants for non-compliance, Scott's JUSTICE Act aimed to reform local law enforcement in the aftermath of the 2020 summer riots but provided more resources to departments, only defunding certain grants if a department did not work to uphold law and order.
A spokesman for Scott, Nathan Brand, pushed back on CNN's framing, noting that "the Senator worked with law enforcement for more net funding" and "[t]o suggest otherwise is patently false."
"If the police departments don’t do what you are asking, they will lose access to federal funds,” ABC's The Week host Jon Karl summarized in June 2020. “So, there would be an element of withholding funding here?"
“Yes,” said Scott. “A very, very important aspect of our bill," he added of the incentive for department and city leaders to allow and empower officers to do their jobs.
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Senator Scott's work with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) to reach a bipartisan agreement to increase training and resources for departments while requiring the enforcement of laws to preserve law and order ended when Senate Democrats blocked his bill.
As Republicans attacked the radical Left's woke defund-the-police movement, Scott continued working to provide more resources to departments while incentivizing reform.
Since Democrats stymied his police reform legislation, Scott has doubled down on his criticism of the Left for wanting to defund the police as a misguided attempt to pander to the marxist Black Lives Matter movement that does not actually speak for a majority of black Americans when it comes to their opinions on policing.
"We have to persuade people to join our team," Scott explained to Sean Hannity earlier this month. "Here's what I can tell you, I've done the surveys, I've run around the country. African Americans, around 81 percent, want the same level of policing or more policing, not less. That's a lie from the radical Left. We have to understand that most of America wants the same thing. How many of y'all here believe in law and order? How many of y'all are thanking God almighty and willing to stand with me and back the blue?"
"You see, when I wrote a bill to help refund the police because the crazy left defunded the police, they called me a token because they are opposed to helping the very people they say they care about the most," Scott recalled of Leftist opposition to his plan to provide more resources for police to protect and serve their communities.
The GOP presidential hopeful is trailing behind Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Trump in the polls— both of whom also stand behind the men and women in blue.
In 2021, at a time when the Left was demonizing police officers, DeSantis announced that all first responders in Florida would receive a $1,000 bonus.
"$1,000 bonuses for every sworn law enforcement officer, every EMT, every firefighter, and every paramedic in the state of Florida," DeSantis said. "Some wanted to defund police; we're funding the police, and then some."
Meanwhile, when Trump was campaigning against President Joe Biden in 2020, the New York City police union endorsed Trump, praising him for treating them fairly and "went to the one person that they knew that would support police officers."
"There was only one person at the time supporting us, and that was President Trump," Paul Digiacomo, the head of the detectives' endowment association said. "There was no one else out there in the political world praising or doing anything for the police."
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