OPINION:
Chris Wallace of Fox News asked Republican Rep. Jim Banks on a recent “Fox News Sunday” show why Republicans were blaming Democrats for defunding police when everybody and anybody knows it’s actually Republicans who were guilty of defunding police.
Come again?
Who died and made Wallace a war-room strategist for the Democratic Party?
This is classic leftist rebranding of an issue. Call it a “taking a page from state-run media playbook” moment.
Wallace said, in part: “Can’t you make the argument that it’s you and the Republicans who defunded the police?”
He referenced President Biden’s American Rescue Plan that included money for police — specifically, money to hire police — as well as funds for new crime intervention programs.
Then Wallace said this: “But you and every other Republican voted against this $350 billion.”
That’s slick.
That’s Marxist messaging slick.
First off, police funding is largely a local affair. Police funding, states USA Facts, “is the second largest category of local government spending after education.” Most public safety departments, including police, “are funded by their governing agency or board, such as a city council,” SpaceSaver.com states. Police departments “generally account for the largest share of the budget in 35 of the 50 largest cities,” and in other cities, “police departments are funded entirely by the city government,” USA Today states.
Yes, the federal government provides grants for police through the Department of Justice and other sources.
Yes, the federal government bolsters local police coffers via congressionally approved line items in legislation — like in the American Rescue Plan.
But by and large, police are funded by the localities they serve. And that makes them ripe for political pressures.
In other words: When localities are hit hard by protesters aligned with defund-the-police Black Lives Matter movements who demand, loudly and even violently, cuts in police budgets — well then, in some communities, in some jurisdictions, in some leftist-leaning communities and jurisdictions, it’s hard for the elected powers-who-be to resist.
Especially when these same defund-the-police movements and demands are being supported, advocated, even led, by the loud and proud socialists in federal government. Can you say Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? How about Vice President Kamala Harris?
Wallace knows this.
Wallace should know that.
“When Rep. [Ilhan] Omar says that policing is rooted in evil and [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi compares police officers to Nazi storm troopers,” Banks told Wallace, “it makes it very difficult for police departments around the country to recruit police officers.”
Yes. Messaging matters.
So, too, facts.
That $350 billion Wallace blamed Republicans (actually, it’s closer to $360 million) for failing to give to police was actually tied up in a boondoggle of a Biden plan to redistribute wealth and call it coronavirus relief.
A $1.9 trillion boondoggle, to be precise.
That’s what Republicans didn’t support.
Wallace knows that.
Wallace should know that.
He was more interested in scoring cheap career points against Republicans, however, than serving the public with truths. And this is why Americans have no respect for the media. This is why “fake news” became such a splash.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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