The Washington Post tried to push back on President Donald Trump’s claim that the most dangerous cities in America are run by Democrats – but the graph provided largely proved Trump’s point.
Trump said Wednesday that “every one” of America’s “20 most dangerous” cities “are Democrat run.” WaPo’s analysis headline wrote that “Trump keeps claiming that the most dangerous cities in America are all run by Democrats. They aren’t.”
The article, however, did not provide a single city run by a Republican in the top 20 most violent cities per capita. According to data WaPo gathered to disprove Trump, 19 of the 20 cities with the most violent crime per 10,000 residents are run by Democrats. The lone city on the per capita list not run by a Democrat is run by an Independent.
“Most of the current mayors of these cities are Democrats,” WaPo admitted. “Two of the mayors of cities with the most reported violent crimes overall, though, are independents and one, the mayor of Jacksonville, Fla., is a Republican. Among the 20 cities with the most violent crime per capita, one isn’t a Democrat: the independent mayor of Springfield, Mo.”
Wash Post really ran this.
(HT @ProfDBernstein ) pic.twitter.com/PMzNjx6G5d— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 27, 2020
WaPo’s article continued on to try and explain why most of the violent cities are run by Democrats – after trying to prove that they aren’t. (RELATED: Only One Country In The World Has A Higher Homicide Rate Than The City Of Baltimore)
“Cities generally have more crime than suburban and rural areas,” according to the article, which added “that cities tend to be heavily Democratic.”
“Since there’s a correlation between size and amount of crime and between size and propensity to vote Democratic, it’s problematic to draw a causal relationship between crime and Democratic leadership,” WaPo’s analysis claimed. “It may be the case that cities with more crime are more likely to have Democratic leaders. Such a comparison, though, is fraught, relying on the validity of reported crime data, the metric used to establish which cities are included in the analysis, the time period under consideration and so on.”
WaPo was roundly mocked for the analysis following publication.
“So many things wrong with this piece,” National Review writer David Harsanyi tweeted. “Most obvious, headline says, ‘Trump keeps claiming that the most dangerous cities in America are all run by Democrats. They aren’t.’ [WaPo national correspondent Philip] Bump finds ONE city run by a Republican.”
Harsanyi added that “Trump is factually right” and called out Bump, the article’s author, for changing course. Bump appeared to try to justify why the most dangerous cities in America are run by Democrats midway through the article.
Trump is factually right, so Bump pivots: well, yes, Dems win urban areas so, of course, they’re going to run cities. Imagine a conservative arguing: “sure GOP farming policy is a terrible failure, but it’s not their fault because they win elections in rural areas.”
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) June 27, 2020
“The most unintentionally hilarious thing I’ve seen in awhile,” Blaze Media’s CEO Tyler Cardon tweeted. “Severe TDS detected.”
Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy commented on the article as well, joking that Trump “is telling such clear falsehoods about crime & party leadership………. oh, wait….”
For tweet embedding purposes, here is the graph cited in The Washington Post’s report titled: “Trump keeps claiming that the most dangerous cities in America are all run by Democrats. They aren’t.” pic.twitter.com/FeAskhbnDM
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 27, 2020