Congressional Republicans All Voted to ‘Defund the Police’, And Now Want To ‘Defund The Military’

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Here you go, Troll Boy (Rep. John Kavanagh).

“It is a well known fact that reality has a liberal bias.” ― Stephen Colbert.

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On Sunday, “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace sparred with Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) over Banks’s vote against an emergency relief bill that would have allocated funds to police and first responders. Wallace has contentious interview with GOP lawmaker: Aren’t you the ones defunding the police?

“Can’t you make the argument that it’s you and the Republicans who defunded the police?” Wallace asked Banks, who is the chairman of the conservative far-right Republican Study Committee.

Just as Troll Boy would do, Rep. Banks avoided answering the question with a “whataboutism” trying to smear a member of the hated “Squad,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who voted for the relief bill.

Wallace interrupted Banks, telling him that President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which Banks voted against, would have given localities more money to hire police officers, invest in new technology and create new crime intervention programs.

Oh burn!

Following Chris Wallace in the role of “Captain Obvious,”  Democrats piled on. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who is smarter than any randomly selected 10 Republicans, and everyone who works at Fox News put together, hit them for voting against funding for police. Republicans Panic After Jen Psaki Nails Them For Voting For Defunding The Police:

Psaki said in response to Peter Doocy’s question about White House adviser Cedric Richmond saying that Republicans voted to defund the police, “The president mentioned that the American rescue plan, state and local funding, something supported by the president and a lot of Democrats who supported and voted for the bill could help ensure local cops were kept on the beat in communities across the country. It didn’t receive a single Republican vote, and that funding has been used to keep cops on the beat.“

Doochebag said that the funding wasn’t for fighting a crime wave, but Psaki was ready, “I think that any local department would argue that keeping cops on the beat to keep communities safe when they had to because of budget shortfalls, fire, police, is something that helps them address crime in their local communities.”

The Republican response has been lies and panic. [What they do best.]

[As] a candidate, President Biden opposed defunding the police. Defunding the police was not a Democratic talking point in 2020. [That was Black Lives Matter].

Republicans in Congres voted against funding for police. Republicans in the Senate are refusing to negotiate funding for the Capitol Police after the 1/6 attack.

Republicans are scared because the message that they are anti-police during a time of rising crime is sticking. It is easy to connect the dots from Trump supporters who attacked the police on 1/6 to Republicans who are refusing to fund law enforcement.

Jen Psaki put Republicans in a panic simply by pointing out the truth of their anti-police vote.

But Wait! There’s more. Rep. Ted Lieu Lays It Out: Every Single Republican In Congress Voted Against Police Funding:

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) broke it down and cut through the GOP lies to explain that every Republican in Congress voted against funding the police.

Rep. Lieu tweeted:

This is not a complicated concept.  Just as a ballpark figure, 9.2% of all local government funding went to police departments in 2017. Police departments are a substantial portion of local government expenditures.

Every single Republican in Congress voted against spending $350 billion to fund local police departments. Republicans are in a panic for a very good reason. Their strategy of trying to make President Biden unpopular by making his legislative priorities partisan has blown up in their faces.

Republicans are falsely claiming that Democrats want to defund the police, but you will find no Democratic partywide votes by their members of Congress against police funding.

Only one political party is on the record as voting against funding for the police while crime is increasing in the country, and that is the same Republican Party that claims to love the police, even though they did not want to give local governments the resources that they need to keep police employed and the nation’s communities safe.

So you can stick your B.S. talking point where the sun don’t shine. Facts are facts in the world of reality.

But wait! There’s still more.

Republicans like to claim that they support the U.S. military, but now they are all into “defund the military” as part of Fox News’ insane “anti” anti-racism white rage over Critical Race Theory (I guarantee you that not one of them can accurately describe what this is), and attacking Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for making a fool of soon-to-be-indicted child sex trafficker Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week.

Max Boot writes at the Washington Post, Imagine if a Squad member called a general a stupid pig. Tucker Carlson just did. (Gen. Milley should beat the snot out of this privileged prep school punk white nationalist).

If the GOP is supposed to be the pro-military party, former president Donald Trump didn’t get the memo. He raged at his generals for supporting alliances such as NATO and resisting his demands to “crack” the “skulls” of civil rights demonstrators. While reveling in military parades and props, Trump reportedly denounced top generals as “dopes and babies” and troops who fell in battle as “suckers” and “losers.”

Now Trump’s ideological heirs are carrying on his odious battle against the military. Fox News host Tucker Carlson — a grizzled veteran of the culture wars — kicked off the latest offensive in March when he criticized an Air Force flight suit for pregnant women. “It’s a mockery of the U.S. military,” he complained and went on to grumble that the U.S. armed forces are becoming “more feminine” while “China’s military becomes more masculine.”

In May, Sen. Ted “Cancún” Cruz (R-Tex.) posted an Internet video that contrasted muscular Russian soldiers doing push-ups and jumping out of airplanes with a female U.S. soldier who was raised by two mothers. “Holy crap,” Cruz tweeted. “Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea.” Cruz then doubled down on his homophobia, accusing “Dem politicians & woke media” of “trying to turn” the armed forces “into pansies.” Promoting Russian propaganda to own the “libs” — brilliant!

At a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee last week, Republicans expressed outrage that an elective course at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point includes information about critical race theory and “white rage.” This prompted a memorable rebuke from Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military … of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there,” Milley said. “I want to understand white rage — and I’m White. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?”

The general’s explanation hit a little too close to home for a TV personality who personifies “white rage” while denying its existence. On Thursday night, Carlson responded by calling Milley — a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan with degrees from Princeton and Columbia University — “unimpressive.” “He’s not just a pig,” Carlson opined, “he’s stupid.”

His Fox colleague Laura Ingraham, taking a break from maligning Democrats for supposedly defunding the police, called on Congress to defund the military. Meanwhile, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), taking a break from defending himself against allegations of sex trafficking, tweeted: “With Generals like this it’s no wonder we’ve fought considerably more wars than we’ve won.”

Media Matters: Tucker Carlson and the rest of Fox News are attacking Gen. Mark Milley for opposing racism. White Nationalist racist says: Tucker Carlson says labeling white supremacists a threat is a “racial attack” on all white people. Who exactly is watching this racist shit on Fox News?

Remember what happened when Sen. Joe McCarthy turned his “red scare” on the U.S. Army? He wound up censured by the Senate, and dying from alcoholism a few years later. It’s time for Americans to turn off Fox News (and OANN and Newsmax) and send these white nationalist racists to a similar fate.

With conservatives like this, it’s no wonder our country is so screwed up. Thanks to Trump, the guardrails are gone. These right-wing blowhards — most of whom have never served a day in uniform — now feel free to revile decorated combat veterans such as Milley. Imagine what kind of hissy fit the right would throw if a member of “the Squad” called a four-star general a stupid pig. Yet the most popular cable-TV host in America [???] does it without a peep of protest from the right.

To anyone who is familiar with the military — a category that evidently excludes most Fox hosts and Republican lawmakers — the notion that it has been a hotbed of progressive ideology is absurd. Even though Trump’s attempts to politicize the military reduced his support in the ranks, the military remains a deeply conservative, heavily Republican institution. Over the years, it has integrated Black people, women, gays, transgender people and others. But, at each step of the way, critics, internal and external, wrongly claimed that expanded diversity would hurt combat effectiveness.

One of Carlson’s guests had the temerity to claim last week that “We have been a colorblind culture in the United States military for almost 200 years.” In fact, President Harry S. Truman ordered the military desegregated 73 years ago. [Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948) … On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military.] Even today, there is widespread evidence of racism and discrimination within the armed forces. Right-wing extremism also remains a real concern: Some 10 percent of the defendants charged with attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6 are either veterans or active-duty service members.

In short, there’s a good reason the military is trying to combat racism, sexism and other noxious sentiments: They present a clear and present danger to a diverse military force that must work together to defend the nation.

But right-wing politicians and commentators don’t care about what is in the best interests of the armed forces. They care only about scoring their stupid political points — and they show no regard for the damage they inflict on an institution where far too many TVs are tuned to Fox “News.” Carlson & Co. are giving aid and encouragement to racists in the ranks, telling them, in effect, to ignore the guidance they receive from the chain of command. They’re the ones — not the critical race theorists — who are hurting unit cohesion, good order and discipline.

I just wish the military-bashers would spare us the pretense that they are uber-patriots who “support the troops.” You can’t be for the troops if you’re waging war on the armed forces.

Exactly! Again, you can stick your B.S. talking point where the sun don’t shine. Facts are facts in the world of reality.

By defunding the Capitol Police and defunding the military, the Sedition Party is hoping to make their next insurrection a success.





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4 thoughts on “Congressional Republicans All Voted to ‘Defund the Police’, And Now Want To ‘Defund The Military’”

  2. The Washington Post’s fact checker, Glenn Kessler reports, “The continuing GOP fiction that President Biden supports defunding police”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/29/continuing-gop-fiction-that-president-biden-supports-defunding-police/

    During the 2020 election, the Trump campaign desperately tried to claim that Joe Biden was a supporter of the “defund the police” movement advocated by some elements of the Democratic Party. But as we noted, Trump had a problem: Biden firmly rejected calls from left-wing activists to defund police and in fact said he would double funding for a community policing program that would put more officers on the street.

    First of all, let’s get straight what it means to “defund the police.”

    Only in rare instances are liberal advocates calling for the outright elimination of police departments. Proponents by and large want to redirect some funds now spent on police forces to items such as education, public health, housing and youth services. The idea is that low-income communities would become stronger — and less in need of policing tactics — if root problems were addressed.

    Under this concept, some police officers would be replaced with trained social workers or specialized response teams in an effort to let police focus on violent crime, not drug overdoses or homelessness. The theory is that police would be better positioned to deal with rapes and murders if they were not required to deal with other social ills that sometimes lead to community confrontations with police.

    [Rep.] Banks has no basis for claiming that abolishing police or supporting the defund police movement is a Biden administration position.

    Indeed, the opposite is true.

    In his fiscal 2022 budget, Biden kept his campaign promise and proposed to more than double the funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program. Funding is provided to state and local governments to hire law enforcement officers, thus inflating the size of police departments. In Trump’s last year, $156.5 million was provided for COPS Hiring, while Biden would boost that to $388 million, Justice Department documents say. In fact, Biden would boost funding for all COPS grant programs to $651 million, up from $386 million under Trump.

    Moreover, Biden announced on June 23 that he was urging cities experiencing an increase in crime to tap funds in his coronavirus relief bill “to hire police officers needed for community policing and to pay their overtime.” He added that they also “can use the funding to scale up wraparound services for the residents as well, including substance abuse and mental health services that we know will make a difference in prevention of crime.”

    The Pinocchio Test

    Republicans keep trying to tag Biden with being part of the defund police movement. But that’s simply false. The flimsiness of the charge is demonstrated by the paucity of the evidence that lawmakers muster when making their hyperbolic claims.
    The reality is this: Biden wants to boost federal funding to allow for the hiring of more police officers. He said that during the campaign and then fulfilled that pledge in his initial budget proposal. The president sets the policies in his administration — and he’s been entirely consistent.

    Sen. Cruz and Rep. Banks earn Four Pinocchios.

  3. Via Crooks & Liars:

    “Meet Ben Domenech, Mister Meghan McCain, third wife. Yes, son-in-law to the late John McCain.

    Apparently, Ben, who served only as a keyboard warrior during Iraq, has opinions about Milley that he is spilling over to the entire US Military.

    While Ben gives lip service to soldiers, he declares the Generals, like Milley, prove that we deserve to lose as a nation.

    “The story is as much about the failure of the United States military as an institution as it is about Milley the man. We [define “we,” Ben] get what the system gives us. If we don’t fight against it, it’s what we deserve. In this case a series of aging politicians who can’t win wars.”

    Sure sounds like a “we deserve to lose wars” message from the Laura Ingraham vacation substitute.

    “But my father” must be so proud.”

    https://crooksandliars.com/2021/06/john-mccains-son-law-disses-military-we

    Wonder what Cindy & Meghan think. Cindy? I have no idea. Meghan? Probably standing by her poor excuse of a man.

  4. Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post ads, “The GOP should be held accountable for deserting law and order”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/28/democrats-hold-gop-accountable-refusing-defend-law-or-order/

    It is an argument Democrats should be making more often: In their unanimous opposition to the American Rescue Plan, Republicans voted against a whole bunch of popular programs, not the least of which was funding for the police, whom they claim to adore. If Democrats have been slow off the mark to hold Republicans accountable for their votes, “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace zeroed in on GOP hypocrisy in his exchange with Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.)

    Wallace never got a straight answer because there was nothing Banks could really say. Republicans had voted against providing more funding for the police. In fact, for more than a year, they had refused to allocate needed funds for state and local governments that employ police and other first responders. They called money for police, firefighters and paramedics “a blue-state bailout.”

    While Republicans would prefer to talk about the defund-the-police rhetoric of a few Democratic backbenchers, the media should press them on their obstruction. After all, Republicans refused to support not only police funding but also hugely popular items such an expanded child tax credit, funding for a successful coronavirus vaccination program and the restaurant revitalization fund (although Republicans have been touting that item). If the shoe were on the other foot, Republicans would not hesitate to go on attack.

    Then there is Republicans’ refusal to vote for the Jan. 6 commission despite pleas of police officers and their families.

    [A] spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been slamming McCarthy for opposition to the commission, put out a written statement. “It’s troubling that it took a two-month-long public pressure campaign for Minority Leader McCarthy to meet with Officer Fanone,” the statement said. “It’s even more troubling that McCarthy refused the officer’s reasonable request to publicly condemn the Members of his Conference who have attacked the heroism of those who fought off January’s insurrection.” The statement continued, “McCarthy’s behavior in Friday’s meeting is just the latest example of House Republicans’ growing contempt for police and law enforcement officers who keep us safe.”

    Do Republicans hate the police? No, but their “law and order” rhetoric and attacks on Democrats cannot conceal their votes nor their excuses for four years of the MAGA cult leader’s lawlessness. In defending the disgraced former president, voting to acquit him twice for gross abuse of his office and taking the side of right-wing White extremists, these Republicans reveal how shallow their rhetoric really is. Whatever they say, they have refused to defend law or order for four years.

    Republicans made hay in the 2020 election by fixating on progressive groups’ “defund the police” rhetoric, even though President Biden and Democratic leaders repudiated that sentiment. Now, Republicans are hoisted by their own petard. Instead of battling against the label Republicans want to deploy to smear them, Democrats now seek to hold Republicans responsible for what they do in office. It is about time.

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