President Biden’s pick for a top Justice Department role is under fire for comments appearing to endorse defunding the police, something she says she does not support despite her previous testimony touting Black Lives Matter’s calls to decrease police budgets.
Vanita Gupta, CEO of the left-of-center Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division during the final couple years of the Obama administration, is Biden’s nominee for associate attorney general, facing criticism from Republican senators for her past remarks appearing to approve of BLM’s “defund the police” advocacy.
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Gupta testified she does not support defunding the police, although much of her past rhetoric was rooted in the demands of BLM and its leaders, and she has name-dropped the group repeatedly in promoting its activism.
Last summer, Gupta testified before the same committee, seemingly contradicting her insistence this week that she does not support defunding the police. She made similar comments related to shrinking police budgets in speeches and interviews.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said Tuesday he would give Gupta a “softball” question. “Do you support defunding the police?” the Illinois Democrat asked.
“I do not support defunding the police. I have, in fact, spent my career advocating, where it’s been necessary, for greater resources for law enforcement in things like body-worn cameras, officer wellness and safety programs, and any number of measures,” Gupta said. “I believe that is why I, today, enjoy the honor of having so much law enforcement support.”
Her nomination was endorsed by groups including the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and National Fraternal Order of Police.
Gupta added: “I have indeed, Senator, talked about something that I hear reflected from police officers and police chiefs, sheriffs, and civil rights activists about the fact that, for too long, we have placed almost all, or so many of our nation’s social problems, at the feet of police.”
She said: “We speak about the fact that law enforcement has been dealt this burden of having to deal with all of these problems and the need for greater investment in mental health services in community-based drug treatment programs.”
BIDEN PICK FOR TOP DOJ POST IS BIG FAN OF BLACK LIVES MATTER
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, told Gupta her response “is clearly the right political answer, seeking to get confirmed” but pointed to testimony last summer and comments she made during a seminar for the left-wing Arabella Advisors.
“While front-end systems changes are important, it is also critical for state and local leaders to heed calls from Black Lives Matter and Movement for Black Lives activists to decrease police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of police in our lives,” Gupta told the Senate last June.
Andrew Bates, a Biden transition spokesman, told the Washington Post: “She was speaking on behalf of her organization to reflect the consensus position among civil rights groups — not in her personal capacity — and has never personally supported defunding the police in any sense.”
Cruz said Tuesday, “By any measure, that’s advocating defunding the police.”
“Senator, respectfully, I disagree with how you’re characterizing that. I don’t support defunding the police,” Gupta said, adding, “Those statements reflect conversations that I’ve had with sheriffs around the country, police officers, police chiefs, civil rights activists who have who have been talking to me for years.”
After the hearing, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton tweeted Gupta “urged state and local leaders to defund the police — just nine months ago! No matter how many times she denies it, her record speaks for itself.”
A June coalition letter organized by Gupta’s group advocated for Congress to “reexamine federal spending priorities and shrink the footprint of the police,” which “means shifting billions of federal, taxpayer dollars away from criminalization, including policing, toward rebuilding communities of color.”
Gupta wrote that communities needed to be “shifting our approach to public safety away from exclusive investments in criminalization and policing, and toward investments in” education and healthcare in a June Politico op-ed.
When asked about defunding the police during a June appearance on the Knight Foundation’s “Vision” series, Gupta argued there was a demand “to shrink the footprint of policing” and that “budgets are moral documents.” She said communities needed to ask “why have they so invested in this criminal legal system infrastructure — including policing” at the “expense of” jobs and public transportation.
Gupta added, “There are people in the movement who are pushing abolition, and then there are a lot of people who are actually saying, ‘Look, we may not be abolitionists, but we profoundly criticize the model that skews so much towards policing.’”
Black Lives Matter underwent a resurgence in 2020, a year filled with protests against racial inequality and police brutality, some marred by violence and rioting, which were spurred by the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, following a white police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
Gupta spoke with New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in July, telling him there were “a lot of misconceptions” about defunding the police and “there isn’t a single definition.” Gupta said it was “about the systemic disinvestment from black communities in particular … of positive investments and supports like healthcare, access to mental health services.” Gupta argued against “using a kind of exclusively criminal justice approach.”
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Gupta said the protests reflected a need to have local leaders talk about “why police department budgets may be as big as they are” and “why there’s been a kind of almost single-minded reliance on policing” during an Obama Foundation discussion in August. She added, “Some people call this ‘defund’ and some people call this ‘divest/invest’ — but this is a moment for … kind of broader focus on mass incarceration.”
