OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy engaged in some fiery back-and-forth with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday after she made a head-turning claim about Republicans and rising crime in blue cities.
Doocy started the confrontation with a reference to an incident involving Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) earlier in the week. Three armed assailants carjacked his vehicle in the ritzy Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C., though police managed to locate the vehicle and the congressman’s belongings a few hours later.
KJP responded by blaming Republicans for their refusal to back the American Rescue Plan, one of a half-dozen COVID relief bills that they said would add another $1.9 trillion to the national debt and contained a plethora of far-left spending priorities. The press secretary said the measure also contained additional funding for cities to hire more police, insinuating that Republican refusal to support the bill was somehow responsible for rising crime in blue cities like D.C.
“Well, my first follow-up would be, how are you gonna blame Republicans for this? Isn’t D.C. run by a bunch of Democrats?” Doocy asked.
“I’m gonna speak to what the president has done,” Jean-Pierre replied. “The president has been very, very straightforward about what he has done to make sure communities are safe. The American Rescue Plan, not one Republican in Congress voted for it. Not one.
“There were billions of dollars in that plan, in that act, to make sure communities across the country got funding so they can indeed hire more police officers so that they can keep their communities safe. Republicans had nothing to do with that. They were not involved in that. They decided not to vote on the American Rescue Plan. That’s just a fact,” she added.
“So if President Biden’s policies are helping bring crime down, would he be comfortable with somebody borrowing his Corvette and parking it on the street overnight in Southeast D.C.?” Doocy asked.
“I’m not gonna get into hypotheticals. I’m just gonna get into the facts about what this president has done in this presidency,” KJP responded.
Doocy responded by asking if members of Congress aren’t even safe on D.C. streets, who is — to which she responded that the White House is “grateful” that Cuellar was not harmed.
WATCH:
Last week, a Republican congressman from Missouri made a stunning revelation about several of his colleagues due to rising crime in D.C., which is completely run by Democrats.
Rep. Eric Burlison said that many of his fellow lawmakers are now sleeping in their congressional offices because they are fearful of being attacked or murdered on the increasingly dangerous streets of Washington, D.C.
Burlison made the shocking admission Wednesday during an interview with radio host Todd Starnes on his podcast.
The Missouri lawmaker’s stunning revelation came after Starnes noted that Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) had been robbed and carjacked on Monday in the Navy Yard neighborhood of the nation’s capital, where several Congress members live.
“How dangerous is it in Washington?” Starnes asked.
“It’s very dangerous,” Burlison responded. “I mean, it’s insane to even own a car in D.C. because wherever you park, it is going to cost you a fortune, and it’s likely to get broken into and you’re likely to get carjacked.”
“You know, we hunker down in the Capitol building. … It’s a security calculation to actually sleep in your office,” Burlison added.
An obviously stunned Starnes replied: “You’re telling me that it’s so dangerous in Washington that some of these lawmakers are actually sleeping in their offices?”
“Yeah,” Burlison said. “I mean, Todd, I don’t want to walk back and forth from an apartment in D.C. at night or in the early morning to get to work. It’s not a safe environment.”
“It’s shocking,” Starnes said. “I think I have to imagine people listening to this, congressman, are just dumbfounded that things are that bad in Washington, D.C. I know Sen. Mike Lee last night was tweeting that maybe it’s time to take back control of the district.”
