President Biden on Thursday blasted ‘MAGA Republicans,’ asserting that they want to defund the police and the FBI, flipping the GOP’s continual claims that the Democrats were the anti-police party.
‘MAGA Republicans are calling for defunding the police department and defunding the FBI now,’ Biden said during an event at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia. ‘That’s a good one. I like that.’
Biden, who has previously said that he doesn’t want to strip police departments of funding, included in his budget proposal hiring 100,000 additional police on the streets, plus money for crime prevention strategies and community violence intervention.
‘My budget invests in public safety. It includes funding for more training, more support for law enforcement at a time they are expected to play many roles. We expect our cops to be social workers, psychologists, and mental health counselors.’ he shared. ‘You know, more cops are killed, responding to domestic violence calls, than anything else.’
During the summer of 2020, ‘defund the police’ became the battle cry among more progressive Democrats from coast to coast who demanded police reform following George Floyd’s death.
But in a twist, Democrats are attempting to turn the tables and accuse Republicans of being anti-police.
Democrats’ accusations started after Republicans failed to back a Jan. 6 independent commission and opposed spending $1.9 billion to boost Capitol security and fund the police officers in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riots.
Following the FBI’s unprecedented decision to execute a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, some in the Republican Party called to defund and destroy the federal agency.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was one of the first to share her disapproval of the search, writing on Twitter: ‘Defund the FBI.’
‘The FBI raid on Trump’s home tells us one thing. Failure is not an option,’ Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., tweeted. ‘We must destroy the FBI. We must save America.’
The president laid out his budget proposal on Thursday, unveiling a slew of tax hikes on corporations and high-income individuals. The proposals are unlikely to garner support in a deeply divided Congress, and face almost certain rejection from Republicans, who won control of the House last year.
In total, Biden’s budget proposals calls for more than $4.5 trillion in tax increases, including higher tax rates on corporations and high-income individuals, expanded Medicare taxes on top earners and higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign income.
Fox Business’ Megan Henney contributed to this report.