The 40th police commissioner of the New York City Police Department had a few things to say about 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and current Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt — and none of them were good.
Bernard Kerik penned an op-ed for Newsmax on Monday saying the race for Missouri’s open Senate seat has hit a pivotal moment: Eric Schmitt and Mark McCloskey both “exposed themselves as woke RINOs (Republicans In Name Only),” he wrote.
Kerik referred the Schmitt’s withdrawal of nearly a dozen prosecutors from federal violent crimes cases in St. Louis last week and essentially accused him of defunding the police:
Schmitt–who sat idly by all last summer while Missouri burned, stores were looted, and peaceful protestors were beaten–inexplicably defunded a law enforcement effort targeting violent crimes like murder, rape, and assault by pulling nearly a dozen state prosecutors off the joint task force known as Safer Streets.
Schmitt partnered with the federal government in 2019 via the Safer Streets Initiative, which also involves Springfield and Kansas City. Through the initiative, he loaned out prosecutors to help more effectively combat violent crimes. Crimes in these cases, which often lead to lengthy trials, now risk going without prosecution since the withdrawal, Breitbart News previously reported.
The Attorney General withdrew prosecutors the day before Missouri Governor Michael Parson signed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which prohibits in-state enforcement of certain federal gun controls.
O’Fallon, Missouri, Police Chief Philip Dupuis resigned from his position in response to the bill, saying the the “poor wording” of the Second Amendment Preservation Act could have “unintended consequences,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The bill, which has Schmitt’s full support, allows individual officers to be fined up to $50,000 for enforcing federal gun laws — legislation which Dupuis said leaves officers vulnerable during “good faith, justified seizures of firearms.”
According to Kerik’s op-ed, Schmitt has spent the last few months “fraudulently posturing as a Trump-aligned Republican.”
“Although he has lost every lawsuit he filed in his desperate attempt to get President Trump’s attention, he has frequently made headlines. I can see why some Republicans have been conned into believing he is a conservative,” he wrote.
His decision to defund under pressure from liberals, will singlehandedly make Missouri less safe and embolden criminals. Eric Schmitt is not tough on crime, he is just another weak, career politician who refuses to back the police and to stand up to violent criminals.
Breitbart News reached out the Schmitt’s office on Monday asking how his actions are different from Democrat-led efforts to defund the police.
His office released this statement:
At every single turn, Attorney General Schmitt has aggressively pushed back on attempts to defund the police, supported Missouri’s law enforcement, defended Missourians’ Second Amendment rights, and prosecuted violent criminals – any suggestion otherwise is unfounded and completely laughable. He has vocally opposed and will continue to oppose any effort to defund the police. He has presented our “Back the Blue” awards to law enforcement across the state for their heroics and dedication to their communities, and successfully fought to repeal the residency rule to aid in police recruiting. He has and will continue to fiercely defend the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens. And, through his efforts to prosecute violent crime, we’ve tallied over 600 charges filed against violent criminals across the state. Attorney General Schmitt’s record is unassailable.
His office did not answer Breitbart News’s request for comment when asked if they had a response to Kerik’s article.
Kerik also knocked Mark McCloskey, who garnered national attention after waving a firearm at Black Lives Matter rioters. McCloskey is making a bid for the open Senate seat as well, though Kerik characterized him as a Black Lives Matter-supporting liberal prosecutor who “handed his guns over to the government.”
“It comes down to common sense: you don’t give your guns to the government, and you don’t defund efforts to put violent felons behind bars. Schmitt and McCloskey are exactly the kind of woke Republicans we don’t need,” Kerik concluded.
Schmitt will also be running against Ex-Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. Despite his resignation amidst allegations of an extra-marital affair, blackmail, and misuse of funds, Greitens has polled favorably in Missouri, according to the Associated Press.
The Missouri Ethics Commission later released a report concluding they found “no evidence of any wrongdoing by Greitens” after looking into allegations of election law violations, Breitbart News previously reported.
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