Democrats ditch 'defund the police' slogan, but not necessarily policy principles Print this article With the 2020 campaign season over, the message is clear from the upper echelons of the Democratic Party: “Defund the police” is not the message that they want to communicate to voters. Former President Barack Obama warned in an interview earlier this month that "you lost a big audience the minute you say it.” President-elect Joe Biden in a private meeting last week, according to audio obtained by the Intercept, said, “That’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country, saying that we’re talking about defunding the police.”