On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Biden Senior Adviser Cedric Richmond said that voters in cities that have seen record crime shouldn’t blame President Joe Biden or their Democratic mayors for crime spikes and that there has been “Republican obstruction” of things that would “get at the root cause of crime.”
Host Jake Tapper asked, “So, several major U.S. cities have seen record crime, record homicides in the last year, including my hometown, Philadelphia. Why shouldn’t voters in those cities not only blame President Biden, but blame their Democratic mayors?”
Richmond responded, “Well, they shouldn’t. It’s a bigger problem. It takes investment in communities. So, when you look at, whether it was our American Rescue Plan or whether it was Build Back Better or whether it was the bipartisan infrastructure bill, one, you have to improve communities. You have to invest in families. You have to invest in opportunity and education and all of those things. And those things have been neglected for some time. And if you look at what we’re dealing with here in Washington in terms of just pure Republican obstruction, those things that we want to invest in, whether it’s child care, whether it’s early child education, those things get at the root cause of crime. And so, you’re not going to solve it strictly by police and district attorneys, you have to invest also, and those investments have been lacking. And we’re not going to leave our communities behind, and that’s why we have such a focus on investing in all communities.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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