Fox News anchor Chris Wallace called out Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) on Sunday for voting against an emergency relief bill that would’ve distributed funds to police and first responders. Banks was claiming that Democrats’ anti-police rhetoric was responsible for rising rates of violent crime when Wallace pointed out that Republicans are the ones responsible for voting against increases in law enforcement spending. "Can't you make the argument that it's you and the Republicans who defunded the police?" Wallace asked Banks.
"Not at all, Chris. Let's go back and look at the record over the last year, the comments that Democrats have made … " Banks responded. Wallace, cutting Banks off, reminded him that President Biden’s American Rescue Plan would have paid for localities to hire additional police officers and invest in new crime prevention programs. "I've heard your point about the last year," Wallace said. "But you and every other Republican voted against this $350 billion."
Banks again returned to the subject of rhetorics, saying, "When Rep. Omar [D-Minn.] says that policing is rooted in evil, and Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] compares police officers to Nazi storm troopers, it makes it very difficult for police departments around the country to recruit police officers.”
Banks’ interview with Wallace followed President Biden’s statements last week about his new anti-crime plans in which he pledged to target law-breaking gun dealers. In response, Banks wrote an op-ed for Fox News’ website in which he accused President Biden of not admitting Democrats’ responsibility for upticks in crime. He claimed there is “overwhelming evidence connecting the rise in murders to the violent riots last summer and the Defund the Police movement.” In reality, there is none.
“Is there any gun control that you can support?” Wallace eventually asked Banks. "What I'm saying is if we are serious about reducing violent crime in America, then Joe Biden will go on a national public relations campaign to admonish the radical voices in the Democrat party that stigmatize police officers and law enforcement," Banks replied.
Abigail Covington is a journalist and cultural critic based in Brooklyn, New York but originally from North Carolina, whose work has appeared in Slate, The Nation, Oxford American, and Pitchfork
