President Joe Biden called Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) on Thursday after she was carjacked at gunpoint Wednesday in broad daylight.
Scanlon was approached by two armed men at 2:45 p.m. in Philadelphia. They demanded she surrender the keys to her 2017 Acura MDX. After she turned them over, they drove off with her car. Several items were also taken from her vehicle, including stuff related to her work.
Biden called her the morning after the incident, White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed during the daily briefing.
“It is absolutely unacceptable for any American, whether [they] are a member of Congress or not, to be victimized by crime like that,” Psaki said.
She argued that Biden had been “stepping up” federal law enforcement by giving communities more funds in the American Rescue Plan.
“This is a priority for the president,” she said, even though she could not explain why the president was not succeeding in bringing down crime in some of America’s largest cities.
“The president has never supported defunding the police,” she said, despite Biden indicating during the campaign he would “absolutely” support redirecting funds from police departments to other programs.
Scanlon’s vehicle was found later at a shopping center in Newark, Delaware, Biden’s home state, and five people have been arrested. The FBI worked with police on the case.