During Joe Biden’s State of the Union, the President suggested that the solution to bad policing is not to defund the police, but rather to fund the police. The crowd erupted in applause to the statement.
Biden himself has never appeared too keen on the idea of defunding the police, but those clapping in the audience certainly have. No amount of pandering will erase his party’s history of advocacy for the “defund the police” movement.
Congresswoman Cori Bush can be quoted saying “suck it up defunding the police needs to happen,” and she’s not the only one.
Even Biden’s Vice President has a history of showing support to those who have moved to defund the police. “I applaud Eric Garcetti for doing what he’s done,” Kamala said in response to the former Los Angeles mayor who has removed $150 million from the police budget.
In fact, Kamala isn’t even the only Biden cabinet member to have a notable history of support for the idea.
Marcia Fudge, Biden’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary said, “They are talking about reducing the allocation of resources to that department and I think every single city in this country oughtta (sic) be thinking about the same thing.”
Rep Ilhan Omar went as far as to advocate not only for the defunding of police but the dismantling of the police altogether. “Not only do we need to disinvest in the police, but we need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis police department!”
Yes, a real United States congresswoman advocated that a city in her state completely dismantle its police.
Many have been using Biden’s hint of pro-police rhetoric in the past as “proof” that Democrats do not want to remove funding from law enforcement.