{"id":1312209,"date":"2022-02-19T00:52:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T05:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1312209"},"modified":"2022-02-19T00:52:50","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T05:52:50","slug":"democrat-val-demings-embraces-police-chief-demings-title-in-campaign-after-distancing-from-it-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrat-val-demings-embraces-police-chief-demings-title-in-campaign-after-distancing-from-it-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrat Val Demings Embraces Police \u2018Chief Demings\u2019 Title in Campaign After Distancing from It in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrat-val-demings-embraces-police-chief-demings-title-in-campaign-after-distancing-from-it-in-2020%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1312209&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) is drawing on her days as a police chief and branding herself as \u201cChief\u201d in campaign messages and ads as she runs for U.S. Senate in Florida, but the congresswoman appears to have only recently revived that moniker after distancing herself from it in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Spokespeople from Demings\u2019 campaign staff, signage, and videos make use of the \u201cchief\u201d title in 2022, a noticeable shift back toward pre-2020 days when Demings wholly embraced the title in official logos during her previous congressional campaigns.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe are so grateful for every supporter who has stepped up to beat career politician Marco Rubio and send <strong>Chief Demings<\/strong> to the United States Senate,\u201d Demings\u2019 campaign manager, Zack Carroll, <a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/491610-val-demings-trumpets-historically-strong-fundraising-sends-warning-to-marco-rubio\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> in a Florida Politics report from January 31, 2022. [Emphasis added]\n<p>\u201cThis is a desperate and pathetic attack from Marco Rubio who has failed to step up to protect Floridians, so it\u2019s no surprise he is lying about <strong>Chief Demings<\/strong>,\u201d Demings\u2019 communications director, Christian Slater, <a href=\"https:\/\/floridianpress.com\/2022\/02\/demings-responds-to-rubio-congratulating-her-for-receiving-hyperpartisan-endorsement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> in a Floridian report from February 2, 2022. [Emphasis added]\n<p>\u201c<strong>Chief Demings<\/strong> worked with Democrats and Republicans to deliver for Florida \u2026\u201d Carroll <a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/492961-val-demings-delivers-in-new-campaign-video-highlighting-port-spending\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> in a Florida Politics report from February 3, 2022. [Emphasis added]\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Demings introduced a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/277190127840714\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ride with the Chief<\/a>\u201d campaign tour last month, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sYpqWDui9OY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">she<\/a> and her <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZackCarroll\/status\/1492578631125815298?s=20&amp;t=JEogMdshBxlRx1F_SehaDg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">staff<\/a>&nbsp;have since been promoting it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19939554\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19939554\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/demingschief-1024x767-1.jpg\" alt=\"Ride with the Chief, 2\/12\/22\" width=\"654\" height=\"490\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo shared by Val Demings on February 12, 2022. (@valdemings\/Twitter)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This month, a 20-second video clip published on Demings\u2019 social media highlighting the congresswoman\u2019s vote for the first half of President Joe Biden\u2019s behemoth infrastructure and social spending plan \u2014 passed at $1 trillion in November \u2014 labels Demings \u201cChief Val Demings.\u201d<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p>Demings worked for the Orlando Police Department for 27 years and served as chief there from 2007 to 2011, when she retired and went on to pursue a career in politics. Demings also met her husband, now-Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings (D), at the police department, and Jerry Demings went on to become Orange County Sheriff.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement is ingrained in her background, but Demings, who has been a U.S. congresswoman since 2017, found herself in a precarious position in 2020 as many of her Democrat colleagues perpetuated anti-police sentiments stemming largely from George Floyd\u2019s killing, which happened May 25, 2020. Although police brutality was the issue at hand, messages of \u201cdefund the police\u201d or the more radical \u201cabolish the police\u201d or the more vulgar \u201call cops are bastards\u201d percolated throughout the country.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Now into 2022, and amid an alarming surge in violent crime across the U.S. \u2014 and polling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/02\/15\/gop-culture-war-attacks-alarmingly-potent-dccc-warns-00009265\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">showing<\/a> \u201cdefund the police\u201d is not a politically advantageous message \u2014 Demings is aligning herself on the pro-police side of a Democrat Party schism, the other side of which is led by defund-the-policers like Rep. Cori Bush (R-MO).<\/p>\n<p>Demings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/live\/?ref=watch_permalink&amp;v=467766891516638\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">led<\/a> a press conference last week on Capitol Hill urging more funding for police departments.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>And if her point was not made clear there, Demings, who is also a House Judiciary Committee member, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/gpMsSMAvVQo?t=6183\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">became<\/a> heated during a committee hearing this week, spelling out unequivocally that she supports funding the police:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There is an effort on this committee to try to hijack this important hearing about the safety of our students and the safety of the people that we are supposed to represent and assist law enforcement in protecting. Let me say it for about the millionth time. We are not going to defund the police. We\u2019re going to fund the police!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But between the spring of 2020 and now, Demings has seemed slightly less impassioned about funding the police, even&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/meetings\/JU\/JU00\/20210420\/112491\/CRPT-117-JU00-Vote001-20210420.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">voting<\/a>&nbsp;on partisan lines in 2021 in both April and September against amendments that&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Defund-the-Police.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sought<\/a>&nbsp;to strip federal funding from states that reduced their police budget.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, Demings was being floated as one of Biden\u2019s vice presidential candidates while also running for reelection to Congress.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Internet archives&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201001000000*\/https:\/\/valdemings.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">show<\/a>&nbsp;that Demings dropped the word \u201cChief\u201d from her campaign logo on her website that year, shortly before Floyd\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>Her \u201cchief\u201d logo had previously appeared in her 2016 and 2018 campaigns but was scaled back in 2020, as indicated by her website change:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are just ONE week away from Election Day, Aug 30! Operation &#8220;Send Chief to Congress&#8221; is in full swing <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/VoteforVal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#VoteforVal<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bmZ47aItcl\">pic.twitter.com\/bmZ47aItcl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Val Demings (@valdemings) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/valdemings\/status\/768205914960760832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 23, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_19939850\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/valdemings.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19939850\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/valdemings.jpg\" alt=\"Chief Demings sign\" width=\"509\" height=\"713\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">August 2018. (Val Demings\/Facebook)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Demings\u2019 campaign did not respond to Breitbart News\u2019s request for comment on the matter, so reasoning behind her branding decisions remains unclear, but it was apparent in 2020 that the Florida Democrat was under pressure.<\/p>\n<p>She&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2020\/05\/29\/my-fellow-brothers-sisters-blue-what-earth-are-you-doing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote<\/a>&nbsp;a sharply critical op-ed in the&nbsp;<em>Washington Post<\/em>&nbsp;after Floyd\u2019s death titled \u201cMy fellow brothers and sisters in blue, what the hell are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, more liberal media outlets, like&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/7\/9\/21301639\/val-demings-vice-president-joe-biden-orlando-police-chief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vox<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2020\/07\/11\/demings-vp-police-356573\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Politico<\/em><\/a>, were publicly scrutinizing her for her law enforcement background.<\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>New York Times<\/em>, which&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/val-demings-biden-vp.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contended<\/a>&nbsp;that her history with the police force was \u201ccomplicated,\u201d also observed that she had dropped \u201cchief\u201d from her logo.<\/p>\n<p><em>Write to Ashley Oliver at <a href=\"mailto:aoliver@breitbart.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">aoliver@breitbart.com<\/a>. Follow her on Twitter at <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/asholiver\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@asholiver<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) is drawing on her days as a police chief and branding herself as \u201cChief\u201d in campaign messages and ads as she runs for U.S. Senate in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1312209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}