It’s an election year, and so Republicans are emphasizing “crime,” but Fox News viewers were informed of something surprising: “The biggest increase in the murder rate in this country occurred in the final year of the Trump administration, not during any of the Biden years.”
Watch here:
Waling: Listen the highest jump in the murder rate in this country happened in the last year of the Trump administration. It didn’t happen in any of the Biden years.. pic.twitter.com/j7rXVuwsH7
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2024
“The president recently invited all major police chiefs to the White House. Violent crime is generally decreasing in most major cities. This is something that should be discussed, especially among Democrats. The largest increase in the annual homicide rate in this country occurred in the last year of the Trump administration, not during any of the Biden years over the past three years.
Once again, the president is basing his campaign on his track record. Donald Trump is currently in a different situation compared to 2016 and now has a record to defend.
It’s true that Trump is not in the same situation as in 2016, when the plea was to “give him a chance.” Now, Trump has a record to defend.
In February, President Biden met with police chiefs from major cities, where they celebrated the significant decrease in crime rates across the country.
Biden highlighted the importance of the American Rescue Plan, which was only supported by Democratic votes, in assisting cities during the pandemic. It's worth noting that this included a shift in policing to include more mental health and youth intervention programs. Republicans often point to cities like Chicago and Detroit as examples of high crime rates, so it's significant that Detroit saw an 18% decrease in homicides in 2023, while Chicago saw a 13% decline in homicides.
“Last year, the United States experienced one of the lowest rates of all violent crime in more than 50 years,” stated the Democratic President during that meeting with police officials.
Separately, in 2021, Biden’s Department of Justice implemented a strategy for reducing violent crime. These are deliberate policies enacted by Biden, and thus he can take credit for them.
In 2023, Reuters As reported, “Violent crimes, including murder and rape, decreased in the United States in 2022 compared to the previous year, but property crimes increased during the same period… Even though violent crime is on the decline, the 21,156 reported murders in 2022 are still higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to FBI data. The number of annual reported murders never exceeded 18,000 during the 2010s, but rose to 21,570 in 2020.”
So, the high of 21,570 for murder occurred in Trump’s last year as president, which was also the first year of the pandemic. The numbers have since decreased with a 12% decrease in homicides from 2022 to 2023.
Is it reasonable to attribute the pandemic numbers to Trump? Fairness doesn’t have a significant role in politics, but the truth is we do not know how those numbers might have changed under a different administration that had effectively handled the pandemic from the start. Trump attempted to dismiss the pandemic, and by the time they realized it was a serious problem, it was too late.
It's not entirely fair to blame Trump for the high murder rate, but it's clear that his handling of the pandemic was disastrous for the country and likely impacted the murder rates.
Violent crime has mostly been decreasing for decades, starting from the first term of President Bill Clinton’s administration, with a 2020 pandemic or Trump bump.
In the past, Americans tend to trust Republicans more on crime, which makes this clip even more interesting and raises the question of whether it's accurate to continue believing that Republicans are better on violent crime than Democrats, especially if legislation passed by only Democrats helped major cities reduce homicide rates.
Maybe the real problem is the subtle messages being sent to the Republican base rather than the facts. This might explain why this Fox panel quickly shifted to talking about “cartels” bringing drugs across the border when faced with facts that challenged their biases and beliefs. They redirected to the border, which Republicans have not properly funded in an attempt to politically damage President Biden.
Regardless of fairness, Donald Trump has to defend his record like any other politician, and he should be held responsible for his failures as well as any successes he may have had.
