Jan Psaki on Sunday exposed the changing talking points and even hypocrisies of many Donald Trump-supporters, maga Republicans, when it comes to defunding the police.
The five-minute “Inside With Jen Psaki” segment breaks down how several elected officials have declared “support for blue” and “law and order” in the 2020 shockwaves following the killing of George Floyd, House Representative Marjorie Taylor The likes of Greene, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan — and even Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — have changed their tune since Trump’s impeachment.
“After all their outrage and fear-mongering, they are the ones who want to deter law enforcement,” Psaki argued on his namesake MSNBC program.
During the Nixon administration the Republican Party first began portraying itself as “the defenders of law and order while portraying the Democrats as soft on crime”. Such messaging was echoed throughout Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns and by his political allies in response to Floyd’s death.
Meanwhile, many Democrats at the time were calling for the redistribution of police funds and other social services to better combat police violence—an initiative that boiled down to protesters chanting “defund the police”.
At the time, Green called it the “Democrats’ war on the police”, and in a video called by Psaki, Gaetz is shown claiming, “They’ll disarm you, empty the prisons, put you in your house.” Will shut down, and invite MS13 to live next door, and the police don’t come when you call, and in cities run by Democrats, they’re already being discredited, disbanded.
Of course, Psaki poked some holes in Trump’s call for “law and order,” noting that he stands as the first and only president to have ever been impeached.
“The irony is that the ‘law and order’ candidate who led the chants of ‘lock him up’ about his Democratic opponent in 2016 now faces 34 felonies,” she said. And his arraignment on Tuesday could be the first of many court appearances. He also faces possible criminal charges from Georgia as well as possible federal indictments on Jan. 6 over his role and handling of classified documents.
And the former president isn’t the only one showing his “crime over hypocrisy,” she said. “You don’t need to look far to find more examples. Now in an effort to protect Donald Trump, those same defenders of law and order are attacking law enforcement itself.
“Inside” aired videos of DeSantis, Jordan, Green and Gaetz calling for diversions to defund the police.
“The DOJ and the FBI, well, if you never hold them accountable through the legislative process, either through legislation or through the budget, certainly there’s going to be accumulation of power,” DeSantis said Friday. Said to
Jordan said earlier this month that “we have to look at the appropriations process and limit the money that goes to some of these agencies.”
Gaetz said on March 3, “Either we get this government back on our side, or we dismantle and eliminate the FBI, the CDC, the ATF, the DOJ – every single one of them.”
And back in August 2022, Green declared: “We have to defund and cut the Justice Department.”
“You heard right: Republicans have clearly come full circle. It turns out that after all their outrage and fear-mongering, they are the ones who want to stop law enforcement,” Psaki said. The job of the department is not just to file brief legal briefs, it is to keep our country safe. This phrase is actually in their mission statement. They also oversee the FBI, which handles domestic and international terrorism, organized crime, white-collar crime, as well as the ATF. [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives], who plays a major role in fighting drug cartels. But these so-called champions of law and order want to defund, limit funding and cut funding for those agencies – those are their words, not mine.
The host then explained how such values are not only influencing Republican rhetoric, it is also seen in the actions of these politicians, whether some of them are visiting defendants of the January 6th Uprising in prison or the President While in Trump’s own budget, which proposed funding cuts. to local law enforcement.
“So if you worry about crime and want law enforcement to be fully funded and supported, the only place you should direct your indignation for no more is, it turns out, the MAGA Republican.” And they now have entrenched leaders,” Psaki concluded.
Watch the full “Inside with Jan Psaki” segment in the video above.
