Donald Trump and his Republican defenders have been falsely accusing top Democrats, including Joe Biden, of wanting to defund the police, hoping to latch onto something, anything to save the president’s crumbling poll numbers.
But Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) flipped the script and reminded Trump and GOP lawmakers that they are the ones standing in the way of funds that could make communities safer.
“You have a president of the United States saying that he doesn’t want to give money to state and local governments,” the California senator said. “It’s teachers. It’s first responders. It’s firefighters. It’s mental health professionals.”
In other words, Democrats are proposing to give aid to communities in the middle of a recession, while Trump and his GOP allies in Congress are standing in the way.
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It’s almost as if the president’s “law and order” declarations are complete nonsense.
Video:
Kamala Harris reminds Trump and Republican lawmakers that they, not Democrats, are standing in the way of increased funding for community safety. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/I3WdVJRc9O
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) June 9, 2020
Sen. Harris said:
So you want to talk about which leaders are committed to safe and healthy communities when you have a president of the United States saying that he doesn’t want to give money to state and local governments. It’s teachers. It’s first responders. It’s firefighters. It’s mental health professionals. It’s public health professionals. Listen, as far as Donald Trump is concerned and what he says, he’s looking for a campaign slogan that might work for him. But the reality is the American people, I think, are smarter to know that if we really want to address what is wrong with the way that we are using taxpayer dollars, what is wrong with these systems, what is wrong with the criminal justice system, we will see that most people would agree. Let’s invest in our teachers. Let’s invest in our public health system. Let’s invest in the potential of communities.
Trump’s ‘law and order’ bumper sticker slogan is a joke
It’s clear that Trump’s campaign strategy of the moment is to try to convince voters that he alone is standing in the way of complete chaos on American streets.
But like almost every syllable that leaves his mouth, Trump is lying. After all, he has been president for three and a half years during some of the most chaotic and lawless years in modern American history.
As Kamala Harris pointed out on Monday, what Trump is really standing in the way of is funding that could actually make communities safer and more prosperous.
Donald Trump and Republicans do a lot of talking about law and order and public safety, but when it comes to actually funding programs to achieve those goals, they are missing in action.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
