{"id":579820,"date":"2021-07-02T12:06:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T16:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=579820"},"modified":"2021-07-02T12:06:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T16:06:23","slug":"fact-checkers-say-joe-biden-never-supported-defunding-the-police-heres-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-checkers-say-joe-biden-never-supported-defunding-the-police-heres-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fact-Checkers\u2019 Say Joe Biden Never Supported Defunding the Police. Here\u2019s The Truth"},"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\">24<\/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%2Ffact-checkers-say-joe-biden-never-supported-defunding-the-police-heres-the-truth%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=579820&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1313548750.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>As the national urban crime wave <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/cnn-crime-wave-will-put-republicans-back-in-power-in-midterms\">threatens Democrats\u2019 control<\/a> of Congress next November, the party and its apologists have begun backing away from their prior advocacy of defunding the police. The Washington Post\u2019s fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, added to this chorus by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2021\/06\/29\/continuing-gop-fiction-that-president-biden-supports-defunding-police\/\">denouncing<\/a> \u201c[t]he continuing GOP fiction that President Biden supports defunding police.\u201d Kessler gave the notion that Biden supports defunding the police \u201cfour Pinocchios\u201d in his fact-check for the publication.<\/p>\n<p>One of the supposed myths Kessler quoted came from Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), who <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepJimBanks\/status\/1407858355440324610\">wrote<\/a>, \u201cThe problem [causing the 2021 crime spike] isn\u2019t guns and it isn\u2019t COVID either. It\u2019s violent rioting and the Defund the Police movement, both of which were supported, financially and rhetorically, by the Biden admin.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"11.846153846154\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The problem isn\u2019t guns and it isn\u2019t COVID either. It\u2019s violent rioting and the Defund the Police movement, both of which were supported, financially and rhetorically, by the Biden admin. <\/p>\n<p>Read my latest via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@foxnews<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jLSdb2Mngt\">https:\/\/t.co\/jLSdb2Mngt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepJimBanks\/status\/1407858355440324610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 24, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Kessler, \u201cBiden firmly rejected calls from left-wing activists to defund police and in fact said he would double funding for a community policing program that would put more officers on the street.\u201d He cited President Biden\u2019s budget proposal to double funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program from $156.5 million to $388 million. But that is not the full story, since most police officers are hired by local authorities, not the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, Joe Biden has advocated defunding the police by Kessler\u2019s own definition, and as president, he has selected appointees who share that vision. Kessler noted that \u201c[o]nly in rare instances are liberal advocates calling for the outright elimination of police departments. Proponents by and large want to redirect some funds now spent on police forces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biden proposed exactly that last year. In an interview with left-wing activist Ady Barkan, Biden discussed police methods. He said that when law enforcement officers use discarded military equipment, \u201cthey become the enemy. They\u2019re supposed to be protecting these people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?\u201d asked Barkan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, absolutely,\u201d Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/V4CLoiA3vfQ?t=1375\">replied<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As president, Biden has appointed two people who advocated defunding the police: Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Vanita Gupta, associate attorney general. Clarke <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/biden-doj-nominee-kristen-clarke-grilled-over-defund-the-police-op-ed\/\">wrote<\/a> in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/i-prosecuted-police-killings-defund-police-strategic-opinion-1510018\">Newsweek op-ed<\/a>&nbsp;last year: \u201cWe must invest less in police and more in social workers. \u2026 We must invest less in police and more in social supports in our schools. \u2026 We must invest less in police and more in mental health aid.\u201d During withering questioning from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Clarke <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/you-know-youre-testifying-under-oath-here-cruz-corners-biden-doj-nominee-on-defunding-the-police\">claimed<\/a> counterintuitively that \u201c\u201cthe impetus for writing that op-ed was to make clear that I do not support defunding the police.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Its contents should not matter, she argued, because \u201cI wrote that op-ed without having the power of the purse-string behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gupta <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judiciary.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/Gupta%20Testimony1.pdf\">testified<\/a> before the Senate Judiciary Committee last June that it is \u201ccritical for state and local leaders to heed calls from Black Lives Matter and Movement for Black Lives activists to decrease police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of police in our lives.\u201d Kessler wrote that her June 16 testimony has no bearing on her current views, because \u201cwhat matters for this fact check is her position now \u2014 and she made clear during her confirmation that she backs Biden administration policies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That is an odd standard for a disinterested fact-checker: It would mean that anyone could lie and be taken at face value, which is the opposite of fact-checking.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"11.369426751592\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">2) Biden picked Kristen Clarke who wrote 3x in an op ed, &#8220;We must invest less in police\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Biden picked Vanita Gupta who called for \u201cdecrease[d] police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of police in our lives.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YuvjoJtuCy\">https:\/\/t.co\/YuvjoJtuCy<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/67C8HDP1i5\">https:\/\/t.co\/67C8HDP1i5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tedcruz\/status\/1407893004640260099?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 24, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Still, Kessler claimed that Republicans \u201chave no basis for claiming that abolishing police or supporting the defund police movement is a Biden administration position. Indeed, the opposite is true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Numerous politicians have backed away from the phrase, and the policy, since it gained acceptance on the Left in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/lori-lightfoot-said-chicagos-crime-is-falling-heres-what-the-numbers-say\">violent crime<\/a> crests, Democratic mayors who promised to defund the police have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/refund-the-police-major-cities-are-backtracking-on-police-cuts-after-explosion-of-violent-crime\">hiked<\/a> law enforcement budgets to deal with the consequences of last year\u2019s soft-on-crime policies.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase has become so toxic that it has become a political football. White House adviser Cedric Richmond and spokesperson Jen Psaki have asserted that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/psaki-blasted-for-deflecting-blame-for-crime-wave-by-claiming-gop-defunded-the-police\">Republicans defunded the police<\/a>\u201d by voting against the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan which, among a plethora of unrelated government spending programs, contained some funding for police. The media have likewise tried to redefine the meaning of the controversial policy. MSNBC\u2019s Stephanie Ruhle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/watch-police-chief-corrects-msnbc-host-live-on-air-after-she-says-defunding-the-police-wont-hurt-law-enforcement\">claimed<\/a>, \u201cThe idea behind Defund the Police is not to take money away from the police force, but to redeploy money in better, smarter ways to keep law enforcement safe.\u201d (Her guest, a left-of-center police chief, promptly contradicted her.) Kessler \u2014 who has been accused of a partisan double standard, when he chose to fact check <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/wapo-blasted-for-racist-fact-check-of-gop-senator-tim-scott-leftists-defend-senator\">comments by Senator Tim Scott<\/a> (R-SC) that his grandfather had worked as a sharecropper \u2014 may be part of the same media effort.<\/p>\n<p>To his credit, Kessler recently performed a fact check that branded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/fact-checking-joe-bidens-gun-control-rhetoric-7-false-claims-the-president-has-made-on-firearms\">Biden\u2019s &nbsp;truth-twisting claims about gun rights and the Second Amendment<\/a> as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/whoppers-washington-post-factchecker-hits-biden-with-four-pinocchios-over-2nd-amendment-claims\">Whoppers<\/a>.\u201d Unfortunately, that same description sometimes applies to Kessler\u2019s columns.<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the national urban crime wave threatens Democrats\u2019 control of Congress next November, the party and its apologists have begun backing away from their prior advocacy of defunding the police. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2313910,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1313548750.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Fact-Checkers\u2019 Say Joe Biden Never Supported Defunding the Police. Here\u2019s The Truth","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-579820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1313548750.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Fact-Checkers\u2019 Say Joe Biden Never Supported Defunding the Police. 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