MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough said Tuesday if Democrats lose in the midterms, it’ll be because they’ve failed to curb rising crime.
Scarborough said Democrats are feeling the impact of crime and often talk about it privately.
“Democrats privately talk about crime. And they don’t talk about it in a political sense. They talk about how it’s impacting their lives,” he said, pointing to Philadelphia’s rising crime as police officers quit.
“That’s going to have an impact on the Pennsylvania race,” he continued. “But there’s always this, ‘oh, that’s not a problem, you’re just exaggerating.”
“If you keep hearing that murders are skyrocketing in Philadelphia and you keep hearing that people are really upset about the fact that Portland is just chaotic, that they have laws on the West Coast where you can steal up to $1,000 dollars and they don’t charge you, maybe the answer is not ‘I’m okay, you’re okay.’ Maybe the answer is that the Democratic Party nationally has leaders coming out saying, ‘you know what, this doesn’t really work.'”
Scarborough said if Pennsylvania’s Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman loses his senate race “it’s not going to be cause of Dasha Burns. It’s going to be about crime, and it’s going to be about inflation. And Democrats need to get real about this.”
The host then discussed New York City, where Democratic mayor Eric Adams has been fighting against fellow Democrats to try and end cash bail. Scarborough noted that many other races, such as Georgia, Arizona and Ohio are much tighter than they should be for Democrats “because of crime.”
“You can throw the southern border in there too. Putting your head in the sand, not a great option. And i’ve got to say, no cash bail, I mean, I heard from Democrats in New York City nonstop. You know what, people they knew would get beaten up, get mugged. The cops would come. They said should we press charges? They say ‘I don’t know because this guy – you press charges if you want to. They’re just going to go in and they’re gonna come right out.'”
“If I’m hearing that from liberals on the Upper West Side, what are people in the suburbs of Philly saying?” Scarborough posited.
Rising crime nationwide has been a central Republican campaign point as voters increasingly express concern and frustration. (RELATED: ‘Huge Gap’: CNN Data Guru Dumps Cold Water On Dems’ Midterm Hopes)
A Harvard-Harris poll released Friday shows 64% of Americans blame “woke politicians” for the ongoing crime spike. Democrat run cities, such as Denver, are on track for a record-breaking number of murders in 2022, while six other major cities will likely surpass historic violent crime records for the second year in a row .
A Trafalgar poll released in September found more than 60% of Americans feel less safe under the Biden administration than compared with the Trump administration.