Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy questioned Jen Psaki on the charge that Republicans “defunded” police by voting against bills that contained funding for the police, this time on the basis that none said they voted against such funding in order to defund the police.

After an extended volley with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on the same subject earlier this week, Doocy went back to the well at Wednesday afternoon’s briefing.

DOOCY: You mentioned at the last briefing that you think Republicans wanted to defund the police because they did not support the American Rescue Plan. Which Republican ever said that they did not like the American Rescue Plan because they wanted to defund the police?

PSAKI: Well, first let me just note that the president ran and won the most votes of any candidate in history on a platform of boosting funding for law enforcement. Republicans spent decades trying to cut the COPS program. There’s record of that. That doesn’t require anyone having new comments. And then also stood in the way of crucial funding needed to prevent the laying off of police officers as crimes increased. That’s a simple statement of fact.

DOOCY: I understand what you’re saying there, however, there are lots of examples of Democrats explicitly saying they want to defund the police. You’ve got Congresswoman Cori Bush, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, are there any examples of Republican members of Congress saying they want to defund the police?

PSAKI: I think most people would argue that actions are more important than words, wouldn’t you say?

DOOCY: Well to that point there, at the time of the vote on the American Rescue Plan, you had Republican leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell said he just didn’t like it because he thought that was a classic example of big government Democratic overreach in the name of Covid relief, and then Kevin McCarthy said he thought Democrats were using coronavirus as an excuse to justify funding pet projects. Where is the “we’re going to vote against this because we want to define the police?”

PSAKI: Again, I think actions speak louder than words, Peter, so if you oppose funding for the COPS program, something that was dramatically cut by their prior administration and many Republicans supported, and then you vote against the bill that has funding for the COPS program, we can let other people evaluate than what that means. It doesn’t require them to speak to it or to shout it out, their actions speak for themselves.

At issue was a Fox News Sunday interview in which White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond told Chris Wallace that it was Republicans who “defunded the police,” explaining that “When we were in Congress last year trying to pass … an emergency relief plan for cities that were cash-strapped and laying off police and firefighters, it was the Republicans who objected to it. And in fact, they didn’t get funding until the American Rescue Plan, which our plan allowed state and local governments to replenish their police departments and do the other things that are needed.”

Watch above via C-Span.

The post Jen Psaki Battles Fox’s Peter Doocy on Whether Republicans Defunded Police: ‘Actions Speak Louder Than Words’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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