President Trump’s reelection campaign sees the “defund the police” proposals catching on in left-wing circles as an albatross to hang around Joe Biden’s neck, forcing the presumptive Democratic nominee either to identify with or disavow emphatically the latest leftist cause.
The idea of redirecting law enforcement funding to social services, or even disbanding police departments altogether, has gained ground among activists taking to the streets to protest against George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. It has emerged as a wedge issue for Republicans as Trump increasingly finds himself the target of these demonstrations. Democrats are hoping they can isolate the issue to the left flank of their party without alienating the activists, much as they did with calls to “abolish ICE” during the 2018 midterm election campaign.
Trump and his supporters launched an all-out assault on defunding the police Monday, undeterred by the Biden campaign’s statement that the Democrat does not support these proposals. “There won’t be defunding,” the president said at a White House law enforcement roundtable. “There won’t be dismantling of our police. There’s not going to be any disbanding of our police.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany described Trump as “appalled by the ‘defund the police’ movement” during Monday’s briefing.
Biden “owns this movement,” said former Chester County, Pennsylvania, Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh in a conference call organized by the Trump campaign. “He has basically turned his back on law enforcement.” Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell said police defunders were “stuck on stupid.” Not long after this call was completed, the Biden campaign stated flatly, “Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded.”
“Joe Biden cannot be let off the hook after his campaign issued a weak statement from a mid-level staffer,” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh after Biden’s team disavowed the movement. Murtaugh had previously complained, “Joe Biden’s campaign has managed only a feeble no comment. … As the protesters like to say, silence is agreement.”
Now, Team Trump is demanding to hear from the candidate himself. “Let’s not forget that a Biden campaign statement isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on,” Trump campaign rapid response director Andrew Clark said in a statement. “Last year, the Biden campaign insisted their candidate still opposed taxpayer-funded abortions — right before Biden himself abandoned the position he held for half a century. More recently, the Biden campaign insisted Biden opposed a moratorium on deportations before clarifying that, in fact, he did [not].”
The 77-year-old Biden has, at times, struggled to keep up with the leftward lurch of the Democratic Party on a host of issues as political conditions have changed since he arrived in Washington in the early 1970s. But he also managed to defeat a number of more liberal candidates in the Democratic primaries en route to the nomination. The concern is whether he can sustain the enthusiasm that eluded Hillary Clinton when she lost to Trump in 2016.
Trump has been under fire for his response to the protests that have broken out since Floyd, an unarmed black man, died after pleading for breath as a police officer knelt on his neck. Trump has condemned the officer’s treatment of Floyd and called for a federal civil rights investigation, but he has declined to attribute the incident to systemic racism and has been faulted for tough talk about how authorities should handle the sometimes violent demonstrations.
“Politics should require thoughtful approaches to difficult policy matters. A thoughtful approach does not call for a universal ‘defunding’ of our police force,” said Republican strategist Jon Gilmore. “Our police force has a high standard and a calling to live by — protect and serve — and I do believe a vast majority live by that calling. Now is not the time to play politics. Now is the time to look deeply at our hearts and thought process and love one another.”
One Democratic consultant said a possible upside of the “defund the police” slogan would be to make the police reforms actually embraced by Biden and congressional Democrats “outside of the Squad” look mainstream, adding that similar talk of abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not ultimately hurt Democrats with suburban voters two years ago.
Even as Trump campaigns against police defunding, the White House acknowledged he is open to reforms. “He definitely, as he’s noted, recognizes the horrid injustice done to George Floyd and is taking a look at various proposals,” McEnany told reporters.
“There is an obvious need for police reform, and the current political environment provides for the best opportunity for meaningful policy changes. So the advocates of defunding the police had better be extremely clear about what that means and that their replacement proposal will keep people safe,” said Republican strategist Rick Tyler. “Otherwise, this chance will evaporate.”
