they talk a lot about keeping cops on the beat but that doesn t necessarily represent the comprehensive crime-fighting strategy because of what happens next. what good does it do if you give police departments extra money if they arrest bad guys and then they bring them to jail and then they are not prosecuted, they are right back out on the streets? what our focus is on is making sure that the local leaders, the police officers and departments who know what they need for these communities have the assistance and the funding they need. that s what we re working around the clock on. president biden has been very clear he supports police officers. he does not support the defund the police movement. but we have not heard him talk about crime in very much depth at all since this summer. harris. harris: yeah, maybe not one of his favorite subjects considering the crime legislation he pushed forth in
online never mentions the word police. however, the white house now insists that republicans who voted against the american rescue plan were voting to defund the police. that funding has been used to keep cops on the beat. at the time these local police departments might have a pandemic-related budget shortfall not we need to keep cops on the beat. 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. after that white house officials directed us to comments from the president from january and march where president biden talked about the risk of policemen and firefighters losing their jobs. those comments were not made in the context of a crime wave and officials here maintain president biden doesn t personally support defunding the police, never has. that s something that has
if one bill comes with bridges and roads only. the white house is not saying what prompted this weekend s major walk-back. did he change his mind or did he make a mistake? i will say, peter, we re focused sometimes on process in here. i understand that. the process of the bill becoming a law is important. but the president intends to sign both pieces of legislation in to law. officials here are doubling down on the recent claim that republicans have been pushing to defund the police because they didn t support the american rescue plan. that funding has been used to keep cops on the beat. at the time, that was the local police departments might have a pandemic-related budget shortfall. not we need to keep cops on the beat because there s a crime wave. i think any local department would argue that keeping cops on the beat to keep communities safe because they had to budget
for everybody. so the provision that s we ve got in the bill are ones that most people support. keeping firefighters on the job. keeping cops on the job. putting teachers back in the classroom. giving tax cuts to families. giving tax cuts to small businesses. giving tax cuts to businesses who hire our veterans. i came from hampton and we were down there talking to folk who have served our country. this 9/11 generation. and are coming back after making all those sacrifices and finding themselves fighting for work. we ve got to do something about that. the question is, why congress isn t willing to move? and i just want to be fair. i sent congress the american jobs act. and my republican friends put out a plan of their own. and they started out calling it the real american jobs act. they don t get points for originality.