On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that the blame for the gridlock over police reform in Congress lies with the Democrats for failing to compromise and accept a bill that may not have had everything that they wanted, but still would have improved policing. Brooks also praised Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) bill as “a good-faith bill.”
Brooks said, “I blame the Democrats, frankly. I think [Tim] Scott, the Republican from South Carolina, who was the Republican sponsor, put together a good-faith bill. It had not everything the Democrats wanted, obviously, but it had some stuff. It had the — making lynching a federal hate crime. It had — against chokeholds, more transparency for police misconduct. And then Scott said, we’re going to let you vote on amendments. And so maybe — and he said that maybe I’d support some of these amendments. And so, he had a pretty open process. I’m a big believer, if you can take half the cake, take half the cake. And then, if Democrats win in November, they can get the whole cake. I think they should have compromised on this and accepted half a cake. It would have been a step forward to a better police force.”
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