‘Defund the police’ call seized by Trump
Republicans try to link Democrats to slogan
US President Donald Trump and his allies have seized on calls to “defund the police” as a dangerous example of Democratic overreach as the Republican president fights for momentum amid crises that threaten his reelection.
Key Democrats, including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, are distancing themselves from the “defund” push, which despite the slogan is a symbolic commitment to end systemic racism and shift policing priorities rather than an actual plan to eliminate law enforcement agencies.
But confusion over the proposal’s intent has created an opportunity for Trump, who has struggled to navigate the delicate debate over racial justice, risking support from people of colour, suburban women and independents less than five months before Election Day.
Facing increasing pressure to weigh in, Biden addressed the issue in an interview with CBS Evening News.
“I don’t support defunding the police. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency, honourableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community, everybody in the community,” Biden said.
Other opponents of the movement include Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a former presidential candidate and one of two black Democratic senators, and Rep. Karen Bass,
D-Calif., head of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Democrats are well-positioned to win over the political centre this northern autumn, according to Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who said Trump’s uneven actions and rhetoric at a time of sweeping social unrest are “killing him”.
Luntz added, however, that Democrats risk their advantage by embracing policies viewed as radical following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Municipal officials in Minneapolis have endorsed the “defund the police” language backed by some civil rights activists and a handful of progressive House Democrats. Protesters over the weekend also painted “DEFUND THE POLICE” in large yellow letters on a street close to the White House. But there was little evidence that the effort was gaining momentum in Congress. Some Democrats described it as bad politics.
Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota, a white moderate who lost her 2018 reelection bid, said “defund the police” is “a horrible name” that misconstrues the goal.
“By starting with the word ‘defund’, you’ve left the impression that you are doing something much more radical than what needs to be done,” said Heitkamp, a leader of the One Country Project, which is trying to help Democrats connect better with rural voters.
She said the term left her frustrated that “there’s going to be somebody who’s going to try to find an opportunity in this, especially among the Republican Party, and use it now as an excuse not to address what is a very real problem in America”.
That’s largely what played out as the Trump campaign and congressional Republicans sought to link Democrats to the defund effort.
“This year has seen the lowest crime numbers in our country’s recorded history, and now the Radical
Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police,” Trump declared on social media. “Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER!”
The House GOP campaign arm sent out emails condemning “defund the police” and connecting it to Democratic candidates. “No industry is safe from Democrats’ abolish culture,” said Michael McAdams, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “First they wanted to abolish private health insurance, then it was capitalism and now it’s the police. What’s next, the fire department?”
Democrats on Capitol Hill unveiled a sweeping proposal yesterday to address police brutality that did not
include plans to strip funding from the police. The Justice in Policing Act would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban chokeholds, among other changes.
Trump, meanwhile, is grasping for a strategy that might generate some momentum. An NBC News/ Wall
Street Journal poll this weekend found that 80 per cent of Americans believe the country is out of control.
Before the pandemic, Trump advisers believed the president had a real chance of making inroads with black voters, given his support for criminal justice reform and the strength of the economy. They’re less confident now.