Senator Kamala Harris said she “applauds” current efforts to defund police, specifically citing Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti’s announcement that he would cut roughly $150 million from the city’s police budget.
Harris (D-CA) appeared on ‘Good Morning America’ where she was asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether or not she supported the movement to cut funding from local law enforcement departments.
“I support investing in communities so that they become more healthy and therefore more safe,” she replied. “Right now what we’re seeing in America is many cities spend over one-third of their entire city budget on policing.”
It’s truly mind-boggling to hear somebody say they’d like to keep a community safer while simultaneously suggesting the very people that make it possible for a community to be safe should be defunded.
RELATED: Trey Gowdy Slams ‘Defund Police’ Movement As ‘Dumbest Idea’ He’s Ever Heard
Return On Investment?
Harris went on to argue that while police budgets have been exorbitant, public schools in America have been defunded. A specious claim at best. School budgets rarely go down in defeat.
Then she firmly stated her support for defunding the police.
“We’ve got to re-examine what we’re doing with American taxpayer dollars and ask the question are we getting the right return on our investment,” Harris opined. “Are we actually creating healthy and safe communities and that’s a legitimate conversation and it requires a really critical evaluation.”
“I applaud Eric Garcetti for doing what he’s done.”
We all want to stop police brutality, but cutting funding to police departments like so many Dems want to do doesn’t stop abuses, it just makes communities (particularly impoverished communities) less safe.
Will those same anti-cop Dems call for their security details to be cut?
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 8, 2020
RELATED: Trump Jr. To ‘Defund Police’ Democrats – Ditch Your Security First
Does Biden Really Want An Anti-Police Veep?
Harris is currently one of a handful of potential choices to be selected as Joe Biden’s running mate. And these comments add intrigue to that possibility.
Biden has been desperately trying to distance himself from the ‘defund police’ movement, something former prosecutor Trey Gowdy has called “the single dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”
Biden’s campaign spokesman, Andrew Bates, told the New York Times that the Democrat nominee is “opposed to cutting police funding and believed more spending was necessary to help improve law enforcement and community policing.”
Harris clearly does not concur.
Jonathan Swan of Axios on Fox: Watch for the Trump campaign to find a “wedge issue” and call on Biden to denounce this Defund Police moment and to really put pressure on him to alienate a portion of his base, the most activist portion of the left wing. pic.twitter.com/pxsZCBEgvb
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) June 8, 2020
But this is really just the tip of the iceberg for Kamala.
Harris has said she believes it’s “wrong” that “police equals more safety.”
Potential @JoeBiden VP pick @KamalaHarris: “The status quo has been that more police equals more safety, and that’s just wrong.”
Apparently she forgot that cities were literally being burned and looted until additional police & National Guard forces were mobilized to save them. pic.twitter.com/PpWOAoq2Ck
— Chris Martin (@chrisjdmartin) June 9, 2020
Harris has also said she wants to “start from scratch” with ICE, has compared ICE to the KKK, and she said she wants to have a “conversation” about terrorists voting from prison.
If Biden is serious about not supporting the ‘defund police’ movement, he may want to pull Harris aside and let her know.
