Amid the skyrocketing violent crime rates in America’s largest cities, Joe Biden’s senior adviser, Cedric Richmond, endeavored to spin the lie that the root causes of the crime spike were guns and Republicans. In an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace, Richmond asserted:

Part of it is the plethora of guns that are flooding the streets of this country, and that’s something that the president wants to deal with. [President Biden] knows the toll that violence takes on families, and especially gun violence and what it’s doing over the last 18 months in this country.

Fact-check: It’s not “gun violence,” it’s criminal violence.

After Wallace noted that Republicans say Democrat support for defunding the police has played a major factor in the growing violence, Richmond dubiously claimed that Republicans were guilty of defunding the police:

Let’s talk about who defunded the police. When we were in Congress last year trying to pass … an emergency relief plan for cities that were cash-strapped and laying off police and firefighters, it was the Republicans who objected to it. … The truth is they defunded the police.

Responding to that colossal canard, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) made clear:

“Everybody knows it was Democrats who started this crazy, radical, extremist move to defund police. All the big city mayors that defunded their police, whether it’s New York, Los Angeles, Chicago – they’re all Democrats. … Speaker Pelosi just recently called police ‘stormtroopers.’ [Y]ou had one of her top lieutenants in Congress [say] police are inherently racist and need to be abolished. Now they’re seeing the dumpster fire they created. … They never admit they were wrong. They’re just going to try to blame somebody else.”

Ted Cruz added:

“Democrats now claiming it’s Republicans who want to defund the police is like an arsonist showing up at a fire and blaming the firemen, it’s like the Chinese blaming Americans for the Wuhan virus, and it’s like O.J. saying he’s going to help find the real killer.”

Tim Scott (R-SC) cleared up the Democrat nonsense:

That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard all year long. … What we’ve seen is a 40% increase in violent crime in inner cities because Democrats have been defunding the police for the last year.

In a daunting reality defying feat, even White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki attempted to blame Republicans, because they had yet to sign onto Biden’s infrastructure bill (which makes no mention of police funding) while asserting:

I think that any local department would argue that keeping cops on the beat in order to keep communities safe … is something that helps them address crime in their local communities.

Right.

As the saying goes, desperation is a stinky cologne. Despite Richmond’s desperate spin, it is Democrats nationwide who have, for the last year, justified cutting police funding using the “Black Lives Matter” lie of “systemic racism.” In effect, they have created sanctuary cities for criminals.

At the same time, Republicans were decrying the vilification of law enforcement, repeatedly warning that it would only lead to the current state of affairs — spiking violent crime.

And Democrats are now flip-flopping. Last weekend after 23 New Yorkers were shot by urban thugs, Bill De Blasio declared: “We are going to flood the zone in Times Square with additional officers to make sure this situation is resolved once and for all.” Yes that should take care of it “once and for all.”

Oh, and it turns out that, while New York Democrat Representative Jamaal Bowman was requesting increased police presence at his home, he was simultaneously advocating for defunding the police. In a video event with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), he said, “I haven’t thought about an amount, but yes, I support the reallocation of resources from NYPD towards more social services.” On social media he claimed: “A system this cruel and inhumane can’t be reformed. Defund the police, and defund the system that’s terrorizing our communities.”

For her part, AOC is attempting to deflect blame by insisting the concern about crime is “hysteria.”

As for Cedric Richmond, aside from the blatant hypocrisy, his attempt to blame Republicans for police defunding is an indication of rising panic within Democrat circles. Indeed, a New York Times report noted that “progressives” are worried that “if the Democrat Party does not recognize what we have done here in New York, [it’s] going to have a problem in the midterm elections and … in the presidential elections.” That was a reference to Eric Adams, a former police officer who campaigned against defunding the police and is likely to be the next New York mayor.

Expressing similar sentiments, The Washington Post acknowledged that “defund the police” is a liability: “Democrats pushed hard last year to rein in police. A rise in homicides is prompting a shift.”

Meanwhile, this year there has been a 41% increase in the number of police officers killed compared to the same time period last year — another statistical consequence of Democrats defunding cops.

The truth is, Democrats embraced the radical leftist anti-law enforcement “defund police” mantra, and the consequences have been devastating.

(Updated)