White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki continued to promote her outrageous claim that Republicans are the ones who pushed for defunding the police yet, when pushed by a reporter on Wednesday, she was unable to name a single Republican who has ever championed defunding the police.
Psaki’s claim comes as Oakland, which is controlled by Democrats, voted this week to defund the police, and three Democratic lawmakers called for defunding the police this week.
“There are lots of examples of Democrats explicitly saying they want to defund the police,” the reporter said. “We’ve got Congresswoman Cori Bush, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar. Are there any examples of Republican members of Congress saying they want to defund the police?”
Psaki was unable to name a single Republican who has ever openly called for defunding the police.
WATCH:
Unreal gaslighting as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki doubles down on the insane notion that it's Republicans and not Democrats who have and continue to want to defund the police.
Credit to Fox News's Peter Doocy for hanging tough and not backing down on Psaki's lies. pic.twitter.com/YwfkCzPXhT
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 30, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
REPORTER: You mentioned, at the last briefing, that you think Republicans wanted to defund the police because they did not support the American Rescue Plan. Which Republican ever said that they did not like the American Rescue Plan because they wanted to defund the police?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, first, let me just note that the president ran and won the most votes of any candidate in history on a platform of boosting funding for law enforcement after Republicans spent decades trying to cut the COPS program — there’s record of that; that doesn’t require anyone having new comments — and then also stood in the way of crucial funding needed to prevent the laying off of police officers as crimes increased. That’s a simple statement of fact.
REPORTER: I understand what you’re saying there; however, there are lots of examples of Democrats explicitly saying they want to defund the police. We’ve got Congresswoman Cori Bush, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar. Are there any examples of Republican members of Congress saying they want to defund the police?
PSAKI: I think most people would argue that actions are more important than words, wouldn’t you say?
REPORTER: Well, to that point — to your point there: At the time of the vote on the American Rescue Plan, you had the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, he said he just didn’t like it because he thought it was a classic example of big-government Democratic overreach in the name of COVID relief. And then Kevin McCarthy said he thought Democrats were using coronavirus as an excuse to justify funding pet projects. Where is the —
PSAKI: Well, here —
REPORTER: “We’re going to vote against this because we want to defund the police”?
PSAKI: Again, I think actions speak louder than words, Peter. So if you oppose funding for the COPS program — something that was dramatically cut by the prior administration, and many Republicans supported — and then you vote against a bill that has funding for the COPS program, we can let other people evaluate what that means. It doesn’t require them to speak to it or to shout it out; their actions speak for themselves.
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