Heated exchange erupts after Chris Wallace holds Republican accountable for voting record
For months, conservatives have howled and screamed about the “defunding the police” movement among civil rights activist groups, accusing liberals of being “pro-crime” and “anti-police” even though no Democratic politician has run on that platform. But in a political landscape defined by misinformation, radicalism, and partisan lies, the sad reality is that it is Republicans who have actually been taking police funds away — but that truth somehow remains ignored by the public.
FOX News host Chris Wallace confronted Indiana Republican Jim Banks over the decision by every single Republican to vote against President Biden’s mammoth COVID-19 relief rescue package, which contained over $350 billion in funding for local governments, first responders, and police — effectively an attempt to “defund” the police by not giving them any additional funds.
“Can’t you make the argument that it’s you and the Republicans who defunded the police?” demanded Wallace of Banks.
Add your name to demand Congress raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour!
Banks refused to give the president any credit and inevitably responded by changing the subject and blaming Democratic women for “stigmatizing” the profession of policing.
Rep. Banks's answer, after bashing Reps. Omar and Pelosi: "You can give them more funding, and that's good, but if they can't recruit people to become a police officer because we've stigmatized one of the most honorable professions in America, than we are at a dangerous point…" pic.twitter.com/xLeI40rme4
— The Recount (@therecount) June 27, 2021
“When Rep. [Ilhan] Omar [D-Minn.] says that policing is rooted in evil, and [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] compares police officers to Nazi storm troopers, it makes it very difficult for police departments around the country to recruit police officers” whined Banks.
Banks is referring to a tweet in which Speaker Pelosi labeled riot-armor toting cops who had removed all their identifying insignia as “stormtroopers.”
Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti.
These are not the actions of a democratic republic.@DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission.
Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 18, 2020
It is disgusting to see Banks try to blame Democrats for ruining the public perception of the police when the entire nation watched in horror as the police spent the entirety of last summer committing outrageous acts of violence against peaceful protesters and the media, maiming and injuring over a hundred people in their fury to squash the resistance to their authority.
If the police didn’t want their profession to be stigmatized, perhaps they shouldn’t shove an old man to the ground, crack his skull open, and then resign in protest when the public demanded any kind of accountability for it.
If the police didn’t want their profession to be stigmatized, maybe they shouldn’t guzzle up more than half of their city’s budget and then fail to actually solve any crimes.
If the police didn’t want their profession to be stigmatized, maybe they shouldn’t kill over a thousand people every year.
This is a staff report from former Occupy Democrats Editor in Chief Colin Taylor or contributor Rob Haffney.