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A senior aide to President Joe Biden misleadingly claimed that congressional Republicans defunded the police when they voted against the American Rescue Plan Act. House and Senate Republicans didnt support the legislation, but it wasnt a vote to cut or eliminate federal funding for law enforcement, as the claim may have led viewers to believe.

Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to the president and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, made the claim during a June 27 interview on Fox News Sunday. He was asked to respond to Republican Sen. Lindsey Grahams statement that Bidens proposed plan to address rising crime across the country would not work because a declared war on the police was backfiring on those who have done it.

Senator Graham doesnt have a clue. And lets talk about who defunded the police, Richmond said, referring to the controversial concept of terminating or shifting funds away from police budgets that some Democrats and activists embraced in 2020 after a Black man, George Floyd, was killed by a white police officer.

When we were in Congress last year trying to pass a rescue plan an emergency relief plan for cities that were cash-strapped and laying off police and firefighters, it was the Republicans who objected to it. And in fact, they didnt get funding until the American Rescue Plan, which our plan allowed state and local governments to replenish their police departments and do the other things that are needed.

So, look, Republicans are very good at staying on talking points of who says defund the police. But the truth is, they defunded the police. We funded crime intervention and a whole bunch of other things, Richmond continued.

Richmond was referencing the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that Biden signed into law on March 11, as the U.S. economy continued to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. That bill passed in both houses of Congress with only Democratic support. It provided additional recovery money to lower-level governments, which could spend some of the money for law enforcement. But there was no requirement to do so.

Richmonds claim suggested that Republicans voted to cut or reduce existing federal funding to police departments which is what some who truly want to defund the police advocate. Thats not what happened.

The American Rescue Plan included hundreds of billions in additional economic relief for individuals and small businesses, including direct stimulus payments and expanded unemployment benefits. Among other things, it also provided over $350 billion in emergency funds to help state, county, city and tribal governments make up for revenue that was lost during pandemic-related shutdowns.

When the bill passed in a 50-49 Senate vote on March 6, Biden said it meant that states and local governments that have lost tens of thousands of essential workers because of layoffs would now have the resources they need available to them, to those laid-off police officers, firefighters, teachers and nurses they can rehire. And after Biden signed the bill into law on March 11, national police organizations also touted the emergency funding available to lower governments to maintain public safety services.

However, the section of the bill outlining the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds did not stipulate that the relief funding had to be used on police officers or for other law enforcement initiatives.

This is how a March 18 Treasury Department fact sheet summarized the recovery fund: The Rescue Plan will provide needed relief to state, local, and Tribal governments to enable them to continue to support the public health response and lay the foundation for a strong and equitable economic recovery. In addition to helping these governments address the revenue losses they have experienced as a result of the crisis, it will help them cover the costs incurred due responding to the public health emergency and provide support for a recovery including through assistance to households, small businesses and nonprofits, aid to impacted industries, and support for essential workers. It will also provide resources for state, local, and Tribal governments to invest in infrastructure, including water, sewer, and broadband services.

Even the May 10 fact sheet on the Treasurys proposed interim final rule on how to use the recovery funds noted that recipients have broad flexibility to decide how best to use this funding to meet the needs of their communities.

Also, Republicans in Congress did not say they opposed the legislation because some of the relief funds would potentially go to police departments.

At least one consistent GOP criticism of the overall bill which we wrote about was that only a small percentage of it was specifically earmarked for health spending related to COVID-19.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also criticized the total cost of the legislation and said that many states actually had budget surpluses and didnt really need additional emergency funds.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell similarly denounced the COVID-19 relief bill for including completely unrelated left-wing pet priorities, as well as sending $350 billion to bail out long-mismanaged state and local governments. He also argued that the bill at a total cost of nearly $2 trillion was about the same size as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which was signed into law near the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and provided about $150 billion in direct assistance to state and local governments.

And when White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was pressed in a June 30 press briefing to name a single Republican who had opposed the bill because of the additional funding for police, she didnt identify one. Instead, Psaki said: So if you oppose funding for the COPS program something that was dramatically cut by the prior administration and many Republicans supported and then you vote against a bill that has funding for the COPS program, we can let other people evaluate what that means. It doesnt require them to speak to it or to shout it out; their actions speak for themselves.

Psaki was talking about the Community Oriented Policing Services program, which provides federal funding for hiring police officers, as well as nonhiring initiatives such as law enforcement training. As president, Donald Trump did propose cutting COPS funding, but Congress ultimately increased funding for the program throughout his presidency. And while the American Rescue Plan included funding that could be used to rehire or compensate police officers, it wasnt specifically tied to the COPS program.

When we asked the White House about Richmonds defunding claim as well as Psakis defense of it in press briefings an official directed us to a June 29 statement that White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates issued to a Fox News congressional correspondent. That statement also pointed to the American Rescue Plan funding to state and local governments, and the COPS program.

The President ran and won decisively on a platform of increasing funding for law enforcement, against an opponent who not only spent his entire term attempting to cut the COPS program with the support of congressional Republicans but who also blocked critical resources needed to prevent the laying off of police officers at a time of rising crime, Bates said in the statement, which was published in a tweet.

The President, with the backing of leading law enforcement groups, secured the money that his predecessor opposed to keep cops on the beat and every single Republican member of Congress voted against it. They continue to oppose the American Rescue Plan even as it delivers the rehiring of police in their districts. The President is also fulfilling his campaign promise of fighting for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding for the COPS program, as a central element of a comprehensive approach to the higher crime rates he inherited, alongside addressing gun violence directly, implementing prevention programs and dealing with root causes.

The White House official also told us that some Republicans in Congress have suggested that unspent funding authorized for state and local governments could be rescinded or reallocated to pay for other proposals, such as Republican-supported infrastructure plans.

To that point, a June 29 blog post on the website of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi which carried the headline House Republicans Vote to Defund Police Again emphasized that Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee that day voted in favor of an amendment to a funding bill that would stop local governments from receiving the second portion of American Rescue Plan money that is scheduled to be released in 2022.

What we are talking about is an extremely large amount of money that local governments didnt ask for, that in many respects dont need, and to this moment in time dont even know how they would effectively spend this kind of money, said Republican Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, who proposed the amendment, which failed in a 23-34 vote. He argued that because were on the tail end of COVID, it would be irresponsible for members of the committee to continue to shovel money out the door because of the disease.

The two parties clearly disagree on how much money state and local governments need to recover from the pandemic. However, voting against a bill that includes additional money that may be used to bolster police departments is not the same thing as reducing or redistributing existing federal funding for police, as Richmonds remarks suggested.

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Democrat Makes Misleading 'Defund the Police' Claim - FactCheck.org

Though Mr. Podestas firm had disclosed the client under less-detailed congressional lobbying rules and retroactively registered with the Justice Department, that did not stop the special counsels office from subpoenaing the records and employees of his firm and others that worked with Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates.

Mr. Podesta questioned the motives and methods behind the special counsels investigation. He referred to one of the investigations lead prosecutors, Andrew Weismann, as Inspector Javert, the police character in Les Misrables who became obsessed with ensuring the capture and punishment of a parolee who had been convicted of stealing bread to feed his family.

I didnt even steal a loaf of bread, Mr. Podesta said, asserting that he was targeted at least partly because the special counsel thought it was a good idea to have a Democrat, clearly.

Mr. Podesta said his firms finances were stretched thin, partly because it paid as much as $5 million in legal fees for employees who were subpoenaed by prosecutors, and partly because the investigation spooked clients, who left the firm.

Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates were charged with unregistered foreign lobbying, tax fraud and other crimes in October 2017. The indictment identified the Podesta Group and a firm with which it worked on the Ukraine effort, Mercury Public Affairs, though not by name, as having worked as part of a scheme with Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates to gain support for Mr. Yanukovych, while evading foreign lobbying disclosure requirements.

Within a day, the Podesta Groups bank, citing the special counsels investigation and the draining of the firms accounts to pay the staffs legal fees, canceled its credit line, rendering the firm illiquid, Mr. Podesta said.

He told his employees in a staff meeting that he was stepping back from the firm, citing attacks from Mr. Trump and his allies in the conservative media as making it impossible to run a public affairs shop, according to people in attendance.

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Tony Podesta Weighs Return to Lobbying and Democratic Politics - The New York Times

If you are a white leftist, you have not written one word to this newspaper that was informative or enlightening. Not one.

Sixty-two percent of Democrats support voter ID for voting, with non-whites supportive by 84%. That, my friend, is staggering.

Republican voter suppression is a lie. A lie based in liberal racism that pretends that non-whites are not smart enough to get a free government ID.

Sure, non-whites can get an ID for opening a bank account, traveling on a plane, purchasing liquor, getting a motel room, or a myriad of other ID requirements. But to prove you are who you say you are to choose the power that runs the country? Racist, they claim. So you see whos racist here? Democrats.

Again.

Because the history of racism in this country is Democrats. Slavery? Democrats. Jim Crow? Democrats. Civil Rights bill? Filibustered by Democrats. Democrat National Committee member, absolute segregationist, and racist Bull Connor? Democrat. Robert Byrd, KKK member, and US Senator? Democrat.

When you think about it objectively, you will conclude that the race problem currently experienced in the United States is (again) a creation of white liberals, who have used every white killing of a Black person as an excuse to make relations worse, while completely and I mean completely ignoring any Black person killing a White person, or a Black person killing a Black person (which is a far worse ongoing, numerical travesty).

White liberals have lied to you endlessly, and continue to do so. Tune them out.

Barry Johnson, Chico

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Letter to the Editor: Democrats ongoing tradition of racism - Chico Enterprise-Record

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz joined "Fox News Primetime" host Jesse Watters Thursday evening to discuss President Joe Biden's job performance since taking office nearly seven months ago.

JESSE WATTERS: Joe Biden's been dismantling America ever since he took office. We've been reporting on it extensively. The Democrats seem to believe that Uncle Joe is doing a great job until now. A new survey out shows even members of the president's own party are losing faith in this self-described "healer in chief." Since April, Democrat's approval rating for Biden's economic agenda plummeted 12 points. And the same can be said for just about every other issue.

Approving for his handling of racial inequality, taxation, immigration, COVID, gun violence have all dropped. It looks like they aren't buying Biden's bag of excuses for why nearly everything in the country is falling apart. ImmigrationKamala is taking care of that. High taxeseverybody needs to just pay their fair share. Crimeget ready. It's the Republican's fault.

TED CRUZ: I will say it's been dramatic just how quickly Joe Biden and Kamala Harris lurched to the left, I mean, almost from the opening day of the administration, they made the decision to hand control of the Democratic Party over to the radical extreme. And so the policy agenda is being driven by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and AOC. And we're seeing an absolute disaster on every front. You went through on crime. You know, when the radicals who advocate abolishing the police become two of the senior officials in the Biden Department of Justice that shows they've given in to the crazy left.

On the border, when you hand control of border control policy over to the radicals who want open borders and don't want the laws enforced, you create a border crisis that puts us on a path to have over two million people cross illegally. And this year and when you propose seven trillion dollars of new spending, trillions of dollars of new taxes and new regulations that kill small businesses and kill jobs, well, the American people start to notice this.

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Jesse Watters: Democrats have mismanaged everything - Fox News

Something funny is happening to the Democrats right now. They're like your dog when he chews up your "hot hunks of the Bible calendar," they realized they screwed up. It's clear on their faces. Except for Pelosis great job, Botox!

After a year of portraying the police as murderous racists, they're now faced with a body count that would make the Wuhan lab blush.

They're now out of excuses. But oh they try, don't they?

Peter Doocy: the president never mentioned needing money for police to stop a crime wave when he was telling the American rescue.

Jen Psaki: Well, the president did mention that the American rescue plan, the state and local funding, something that was supported by the president, a lot of democrats who supported and voted for the bill could help ensure local cops were kept on the beat in communities across the country, as you know, didn't receive a single Republican vote.

Now, to believe that, you need to be as dumb as The View's studio audience. The IQ isn't additive. How can you forget the last year when you heard crap like this?

GUTFELD ON KAMALA HARRIS AND BILL CLINTON'S WOMEN EMPOWERMENT TALK

Ayanna Soyini Pressley: yes I support the defund movement because this is about the investment in our communities which have historically been divested

Ilhan Omar: not only do we need to defund but we need to dismantle and start anew allows us to reimagine what public safety should look like

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez: I am actively engaged in advocacy for is the reduction of really truly talking about the reduction of our NYPD budget and defunding the 6 billion dollar NYPD budget

And before you say, but Greg - theyre just the fringe. If that's true, then Bidens administration contains more fringe than a cowboy's suede jacket

Kamala Harris, June 2020: We got to reexamine what were doing and ask the question, "are we getting the right return on our investment. Are we actually creating healthy and safe communities? And thats a legitimate conversation and it requires a critical evaluation. I applaud Eric Garcetti for doing what hes done.

You think that's extreme? For Democrats, thats as middle-of-the-road as Hunter Biden moments before a DUI. Right AOC?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Now I want to say that any amount of harm is unacceptable and too much. But I also want to make sure that this hysteria, you know, that this doesnt drive a hysteria and that we look at these numbers in context so that we can make responsible decisions about what to allocate in that context.

Thank you, professor Moonbat. We should defund Boston University for giving her an economics degree. Last year I got pretty emotional about what I saw, especially in my city. Fewer cops on the street, while releasing violent felons onto the same street - meant more violence, more victims. You didn't have to be Miss Cleo to see that coming. RIP.

ILHAN OMAR SAYS SHE IS FOCUSED ON FINDING SOLIDARITY WITH HER JEWISH COLLEAGUES AFTER LATEST BACKLASH

But to the liberal hacks surrounded by more armed security than the pope visiting Damascus, it was a big joke.

Don Lemon: Democratic cities are in chaos right now. Is this what you want from Joe Biden? And they are gonna take your country away and they are taking down the statues.

Cuomo: Crime is rising as they defund police.

Lemon: Oh my gosh it is so bad and they are defunding police. It is like phew (Lemon rolls his eyes).

That clip should get old but it wont. I'm going to play it forever. It's like Chris Cuomo flexing for Twitter - it shall live forever. For it encapsulates the sheer disdain the media has for the people they claim to care about. Remember Don Lemon's great investigative look into the crime wave?

Don Lemon, September 2020: If you watch a certain state tv and you listen to conservative media you would think that, you know, entire cities are just, you know, embroiled in fights and fires and whatever, we went out and had a great dinner in new york city tonight, people actually walked up to us and said thank you for -- I watch you every night. I can't believe -- they thought, they had to do a double-take at us actually hanging out and not seeing on the tv screen. But new york city was not, you know, a hellscape, was it?

Hey, who cares about the crime. I'm famous! Thats a special moment for Don: private time with his one remaining viewer. Maybe that's why their ratings are in freefall. All of their viewers are getting killed.

VETERAN CHALLENGING AOC FOR HOUSE SEAT, SLAMS HER DISGRACEFUL REMARK ON RISING NYC CRIME

But now with Trump gone, they can no longer use racism to defend liberal cities descending into violent madness. Those corroded cities are still getting worse, and it's been months since Trump left. Which tells you it was never his fault to begin with -- he was just their excuse.

And they laughed about the riots because they knew the violence might scare voters into supporting Biden. They're like a mobster saying to a shopkeeper: better do what I say. Id hate to see anything happen to your storefront window. It's funny - they aren't even talking about violent white supremacists anymore. I guess they realize the only white mobs were liberal arts majors tearing up Portland. Whose jealousy is as green as their hair.

The media never bothered to question that big lie. But now it's collapsing faster than a human pyramid with Joy Behar on top.

But maybe we can focus on those real terrorists who stormed the Capitol! Yeah, after Dems bailed out looters, they just sentenced a granny to over a hundred hours of community service for standing around the Capitol. So instead of playing with her grandkids, she's picking up trash on the freeway. That's justice, Democrat-style.

So let's review the root causes of all bad things according to the democrats. Its Racism. Followed by racism. Then Racism. When in fact the root cause is them, them, and them.

Crime is rising, people are dying, what's the cause? Liberal policies. The spikes in violence are only in cities run by liberals. If that's not cause and effect, what the hell is? The Dems reject law enforcement and any actual prison time. Lefty prosecutors decriminalized crime, especially property crime. They threw out bail, and called it reform. So repeat offenders could repeat even more -- racking up more arrests than Kat on a bender.

They grew increasingly more brazen and more violent even in daylight, daring the demoralized police to do something. But they couldn't - cuz they knew that democratic leaders would let them twist in the wind. So now you're left with a befuddled president, who gets all his crime solutions from reruns of "Murder She Wrote."

And a defiant far-left contingent consumed by the desire to dismantle the world's greatest country.

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Biden is such a mess, he even suggested cities could use leftover covid money to hire more cops -- after allowing local governments to defund the cops! Yeah, and maybe we can give the left-over masks to the criminals while they're at itgood for robbing banks.

So we got problems. The problems are solvable unless we continue to elect idiot Democrats. The Dems treat the American people like their groupies. You'll always be there for them, when they need you. When they no longer need you, they don't care whether you live or die.

Because there will always be more groupies. As long as they can evade the gunfire.

This article is adapted from Greg Gutfeld's opening monologue on the June 30, 2021 edition of "Gutfeld!"

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Greg Gutfeld: Something funny is happening to the Democrats right now - Fox News