Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy bashed the Republican Party on Tuesday for playing the “crime card relentlessly and shamelessly.”
Murphy joined MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” during which host Mika Brzezinski discussed a recent Gallup poll showing crime is among the top rated issues for voters.
Brzezinski asked Murphy whether “Democrats have a hold on the crime narrative, or are they having trouble getting the message out?”
“The other guys play the crime card relentlessly and shamelessly it seems every election. And the facts and their portrayal of the facts are in entirely different places. That doesn’t mean that crime in not as issue. It doesn’t mean that we’re not focused on it. But I will just say in New Jersey. this year, violent crimes, shootings, homicides are all down meaningfully between something like 15 and 30%.”
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“We invest deeply, not just here but as a party in the relations between law enforcement and the communities they serve. We invest in law enforcement, so they’re really good at playing the card,” Murphy continued. “It reminds me, frankly, it goes back to Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy.’ It’s got racial elements to it. Let’s just call that for what it is.” (RELATED: Kathy Hochul Calls GOP ‘Master Manipulators’, Insists They’re Making A Conspiracy About Crime)
A new Gallup poll found that 49% of voters rank the economy as their priority, followed by abortion at 42% and crime at 40%. Republicans lead Democrats in both the economy and crime.
Crime is on the rise nationwide, with 64% of Americans blaming “woke politicians” for the issue, a recent Harvard-Harris poll found. Fifty-two percent of Democrats, 75% of Republicans and 60% of Independents blamed “woke politicians” rather than “other factors” for the nation’s historic increase in crime.
Democrat-led cities have recorded larger increases in homicide rates between 2020 and 2022 when compared to Republican-led cities. Denver, Colorado, for example, is on track for a record-breaking number of murders in 2022.