The fallout continues from President Joe Biden’s disastrous CNN town hall held Wednesday night in Cincinnati, Ohio. That anyone in the Biden camp thought this was a good idea is a mystery.
At one point, moderator Don Lemon asked Biden, “How do you respond to Republicans who try to paint you and your party as anti-police?”
The President answered, “They’re lying.”
Don Lemon: "How do you respond to Republicans who try to paint you and your party as anti-police?"
Pres. Biden: "They're lying." pic.twitter.com/3tPksfCYBV
— The Recount (@therecount) July 22, 2021
His reply is, of course, false — and there is no shortage of video to prove it.
The always entertaining Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican, appeared on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Thursday to weigh in on the debacle.
Kennedy spoke plainly: “President Biden is not telling the truth. Maybe George Washington could not tell a lie, but just about every politician since has mastered the skill. And I don’t mean to be ugly, but President Biden has a PhD in it.”
“If you look at the Democratic Party platform, which he wrote, it talks extensively about reimagining the police,” Kennedy added.
“Among President Biden’s most ardent supporters are the Democratic mayors of most large cities: New York, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Portland. They’ve all cut police spending. They’ve all talked about doing it. President Biden has appeared with them many times and said what a great job he’s — they’re doing. He hasn’t — he certainly hasn’t discouraged them. If I watch a house burn down, don’t call the police or the fire department, I think I’m responsible.”
Host Bill Hemmer played a clip from Deon Joseph, a law enforcement consultant who works with the Los Angeles Police Department. Earlier in the program, Joseph said, “When we have politicians who throw us under the bus, who praise rioters and protesters who vandalize and cause so much destruction, OK, when you put these criminals on a pedestal and throw us under the bus, that’s what’s killing our morale.”
Hemmer explained that when Biden was asked last summer if he supported defunding the police, “he said yes, absolutely, that he agreed we can redirect some of the police funding. That’s not what he said last night. He said Republicans like yourself are lying about him suggesting to defund.”
“Well, President Biden’s not telling the truth. And that’s just a fact. It’s been well documented. Your show has just documented it in the last 20 minutes,” Kennedy replied.
Kennedy continued: “The problem that President Biden has is a problem with his party. Not all Democrats, but many Democrats — the whack jobs — truly do believe in defunding the police. They think cops — most cops — are racist, apparently even the African-American cops. They think cops are guilty until proven innocent. … They think if a cop has to shoot a bad guy, it’s the cop’s fault — always. But if a bad guy shoots a cop, it’s the gun’s fault. And the American people see that and actions have consequences.”
“When they de-emphasize the importance of the police, crime rises — duh. And that’s what’s been happening throughout America and for President Biden to say, ‘Oh, no, no, no, I’ve never been a part of that,’ I mean, you know, dream weaver.
“Let me say it again: If I watch somebody start a fire and the house is burning down, and I don’t call the fire department, I’m morally responsible. And he is. And he knows it.”
The defund the police movement was clearly a losing strategy, yet Democrats pursued it with great zeal. Their year-long war on cops has predictably led to a spike in crime. The number of police officers taking early retirement has soared and police departments are receiving far fewer applications from those interested in becoming officers.
This losing issue has clearly hurt them with voters, hence the attempt of some in the party, including the president, to walk back those calls. But video, like the supercut below of Democratic calls to defund the police, is a stubborn thing:
The backlash from the right following Biden’s town hall, as I saw it, was the most robust reaction in recent memory. Republicans are starting to show some much-needed spine. We must continue to trumpet Democrats’ lies and hypocrisy whenever we see it.
Following up on his comments about the defund the police movement, a reporter shouted a question at Biden as he returned to the White House: “Are there people who, in the Democratic Party, who want to defund the police?”
His response was very peculiar. The president paused, looked directly at the reporter and asked, “Are there people in the Republican Party who think that we’re sucking the blood out of kids?” Then he walked toward the White House.
Totally normal… pic.twitter.com/A2ysvrBNuI
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) July 23, 2021
Biden can tell Don Lemon and the handful of town hall attendees who showed up that neither he nor the Democratic Party is anti-police, but just voicing this doesn’t make it so.
We’ve seen how Democrats of all stripes and levels moved to undercut police officers and outright abolish law enforcement amid the crime wave now affecting Americans across the nation. But actions speak louder than words, and videos scream.