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A defiant President Biden insisted his party a ‘great’ record on crime, despite aggressive Republican efforts to tie Democrats to the crime spike.
Asked how big of an issue crime is ahead of the midterms, Biden said as he departed the White House for Delaware: ‘I think it’s a real issue and I think we have a great record on it.’
Crime, along with inflation and the border, have been top of mind for Republicans looking to hammer home perceived liberal failures ahead of elections.
But the president has frequently emphasized his support for police by noting his American Rescue Plan gave $10 billion to public safety programs and executive action on gun control.
Still, voters in the U.S. prefer Republicans over Democrats for solving crime and immigration problems, according to an October Reuters/Ipsos poll. For solving crime, 39 percent of voters said Republicans were better-suited, while 30 percent said Democrats.
Crime, however, was not their top concern – 30 percent of voters ranked inflation as their number one concern, 5 percent said immigration and 4 percent said crime.
A defiant President Biden insisted his party a ‘great’ record on crime, despite aggressive Republican efforts to tie Democrats to the crime spike
The FBI’s annual crime report showed murders were up by 4.3 percent and rapes up by 3.9 percent last year in the US, but overall crime was reportedly down due to decreases in robberies and assaults. The data, however, is missing figures from NYC and LA
In an October Politico/Morning Consult poll, 77 percent of voters felt crime is a major issue in the U.S.
Meanwhile the FBI said murder rates in the U.S. rose by 4.3 percent and rapes by 3.9 percent, but those figures don’t include data from New York or Los Angeles, where crime rates known to be on the rise.
In its annual analysis of crime in America, the FBI said their were about 22,900 murders in 2021, up from the 22,000 in 2020, which saw homicides soar by nearly 30 percent.
The FBI also saw 107,500 rape reports, nearly a 4 percent increase, but overall crime was reportedly down 1 percent since robberies fell by 8.2 percent and aggravated assaults remained at about the same level as the previous year. Robbery reports are down 8.2 percent, according to the data.
In key Senate races, Republicans are shifting the focus back to crime.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a Mitch McConnell-tied PAC, has run TV ads attacking Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman as ‘dangerously liberal on crime.’
In Wisconsin, Sen. Ron Johnson claimed his Democratic opponent Mandela Barnes ‘coddles criminals and mocks victims.’
Overall violent crime in the Big Apple is up 33.6 percent from last year
Meanwhile other vulnerable Democrats continue to outrun the ‘defund the police’ branch of their party that dominated public consciousness in 2020.
As crime rose nationally throughout the coronavirus pandemic, so did voters’ distaste for the social media slogan.
‘It was always absurd to defund the police,’ Fetterman said in an interview this week.
In the Florida Senate race, ex-cop Val Demings put distance between herself and her liberal colleagues in a recent campaign ad.
‘I learned as a police officer you stand up for what’s right, no matter what — that’s how you put the bad guys away and keep Florida safe,’ she said. ‘In Congress, I did the same. I stood up to those in my party who wanted to defund the police. I was one of a few Democrats who voted to make sure violent criminals go to jail and stay there.’
In Ohio, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, running for Senate, is airing ads to make sure voters know not to lump him in with anti-police Democrats, declaring in one ad, ‘I’m not that guy.’
Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly has done the same in his own Senate race, telling voters: ‘I stand up to the left when they want to defund the police.’
Biden, meanwhile, has tried to flip the script on Republicans, claiming they are soft on crime for the party’s role in the Jan. 6 riot.
‘Don’t tell me you support law enforcement if you won’t condemn what happened on [January] 6th,’ he said in August.
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