(CNSNews.com) - White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that President Joe Biden ran on a platform of increasing funding for the police and included that increase in his budget while former President Donald Trump significantly cut police funding in his budget.
“And I will note that while the president ran on 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, which again is public record. We don’t need to undervalue the intelligence of the American people. The president ran on increasing that funding. It’s in his budget,” she said.
“In President Trump’s budget, he significantly cut that, so that’s a change, and the American Rescue Plan had a great deal of funding for local and state authorities, something that can support funding for local police in communities across the country, something many have used,” the press secretary said.
Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki, “I’m hoping to clarify the administration’s position here on defunding the police. You say the president does not want to defund the police, but is the president concerned that last year, the now associate attorney general Vanita Gupta said it was ‘critical for state and local leaders to heed calls from Black Lives Matter and Movement for Black Lives activists to decrease police budgets?”
PSAKI: Let me first say that as a Fox News report that came about in February quoted, ‘Current and former police chiefs in more than 53 cities across the country as well as the National Fraternal Order of Police are issuing their support of the nomination of Vanita Gupta, President Biden’s nominee for associate attorney general, praising her leadership and record and urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to quickly confirm her to the post.’ I don’t know that that was your report or not, but it was certainly one from your network.
DOOCY: But she said -- okay that’s the Fox report. Thank you. In Senate testimony, she said she wanted to decrease police budgets, so--
PSAKI: She also made explicitly clear in her confirmation process that she opposes defunding the police, and the president ran on - most importantly did not run on defunding the police. He’s always opposed defunding the police. I’ll also note, because you’ve asked this question before or a few times, over the last several days, that when we talk about individuals in Congress and their support for funding or opposition to funding for the police, I think what the American people are most focused on is how people vote, what their record is, which is a public record.
And I will note that while the president ran on 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, which again is public record. We don’t need to undervalue the intelligence of the American people. The president ran on increasing that funding. It’s in his budget.
In President Trump’s budget, he significantly cut that, so that’s a change, and the American Rescue Plan had a great deal of funding for local and state authorities, something that can support funding for local police in communities across the country, something many have used.
It doesn’t require me telling you names of individuals who opposed the American Rescue Plan. Every Republican opposed the American Rescue Plan, and I don’t have time to read out all their names today.