Politics

Peter Doocy Battles With Jen Psaki Over Claims That Republicans Want To Defund The Police

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Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy questioned White House press secretary Jen Psaki during a Wednesday press briefing about her claims that Republicans were the ones who wanted to defund the police because they did not support the American Rescue Plan.

Doocy repeated Psaki’s claims and asked “which Republican ever said that they did not like the American Rescue Plan because they wanted to defund the police.” (RELATED: ‘Defund The Police’ Is So Unpopular That Democrats Are Now Claiming Republicans Did It)

“Well first let me just note that the president ran 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,” Psaki said. “There’s record of that. That doesn’t require anyone having new comments. And then also stood in the way of crucial funding needed to prevent the laying off of police officers as crimes increase, that’s a simple statement of fact.”

“I understand what you’re saying there, however, there are lots of examples of Democrats explicitly saying that they want to defund the police,” Doocy replied. He then cited Democratic lawmakers including Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who supported defunding the police.

“Are there any examples of Republican members of Congress saying they want to defund the police?” Doocy asked.

“I think most people would argue that actions are more important than words, wouldn’t you say?” Psaki responded. Doocy pushed back and said that Republicans were against the bill for reasons that had nothing to do with defunding the police, but again, Psaki argued that actions speak louder than words.