Bipartisan applause

Biden draws bipartisan applause for calls to ‘fund the police’

The moment during the president's State of the Union address was a significant display of unity in a divided Congress.

By BEN LEONARD

President Joe Biden on Tuesday drew bipartisan applause — including from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — for his calls to fund the police in his State of the Union address.

“We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police,” Biden said to strong applause, with cameras showing McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise clapping and giving him a standing ovation. “Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training.”

Biden touted funding from the American Rescue Plan — the pandemic relief package passed under his watch — that local governments can use to bolster police forces. Biden’s push against “defunding the police” echoes the recent stance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who last month said that the slogan is “dead” and not Democrats’ position.

The moment was a significant display of bipartisan unity in a divided Congress.

Biden has long rejected the concept of defunding the police, a push from some progressive Democrats that Republicans have used frequently to attack the opposing party.

The police reform movement gained momentum after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, but reform efforts have stalled in Congress. On Tuesday, Biden called on lawmakers to pass legislation requiring universal background checks and banning assault weapons, frequent calls from the president that face long odds of passing.

Biden’s remarks come after Democrats’ own research recently showed that some voters in battleground districts think the party is “preachy” and “focused on culture wars,” POLITICO previously reported. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee warned that unless Democrats more vocally rebutted Republicans’ attacks on issues like defunding the police, they could lose substantial ground to the GOP in the upcoming midterm elections.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), one of the most vocal supporters of the push in Congress to defund the police, slammed Biden on Twitter for not mentioning “saving Black lives” in his address and repeated her calls to defund the police. In his speech Tuesday, Biden didn’t mention racial issues or a push for equity — which has been a common refrain in his administration.

Last month, Pelosi specifically referred to Bush in saying that defunding the police wasn’t the party line.