Dem Rep. Kildee: I Think Harris Was Saying We Need to Invest in Communities when she Praised Defund the Police

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) responded to 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ past praise of the defund the police movement by saying that he thinks she was “focused on not just saying, okay, more and more and more police will solve the crime problem, we have to invest in different aspects of the stability of [the] community. I just helped secure money in my own district in Saginaw, Michigan for a police and community partnership, where money goes in both directions. I think that’s what the Vice President was speaking of, at least as I recall the debate at that time.”

Co-host John Berman said, “[S]he talked about the defund the police movement, and what she said is that the movement was about rightly saying, look at budgets and priorities and I want to play a little bit more of what she said.”

He then played clips where Harris said, “[P]art of what we have to do here is also look at the militarization of police departments and the kind of money that is going to that, and we need to demilitarize police departments.” And “It is outdated and it is actually wrong and backward to think that more police officers will create more safety.”

Berman then asked, “So, this is the type of thing that Republicans are highlighting already this week, calling her a San Francisco liberal. How do you think she needs to respond to this?”

Kildee answered, “I think two important ways: One, to point out that it is the Biden-Harris administration that has dramatically increased funding to support local police. But, during that period of time where that interview took place, there were lots of the same kinds of conversations taking place around the country, including in my district. And here’s what the discussion was: We can’t ask the police alone to deal with this issue of crime and violence. Even police leadership will say the whole community has to be involved. So, I remember that debate, and that was principally focused on not just saying, okay, more and more and more police will solve the crime problem, we have to invest in different aspects of the stability of [the] community. I just helped secure money in my own district in Saginaw, Michigan for a police and community partnership, where money goes in both directions. I think that’s what the Vice President was speaking of, at least as I recall the debate at that time.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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