Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., told Newsmax Wednesday that the Biden administration’s ideology has caused a crime spike in major cities like Washington, D.C., where his car recently was broken into and items stolen.
“It was simply another result of this, I just call, ideology of appeasement that emanates from the Biden White House and emanates right on down through, frankly, most of the Democrat Party,” Meuser said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “National Report.” “We're seeing it in our streets. We're seeing it at the border. We're seeing it in the Ukraine and we're seeing it in Gaza. We are making the victim the guilty party and the criminal we have sympathy for and it's exactly what's occurring in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia and New York and other places.”
“Crime is up,” he said. “Armed robberies are up 60% in D.C. Carjackings are up 104%, car thefts are up 100% just from last year and last year was one of the worst on record. At 7:15 in the morning, unfortunately — 15 minutes prior, I was jogging by — my car got broken into, a bunch of things got stolen. When I come back into my office, though, we started having some conversations about it, and it turns out that three of my staff in the last 2 1/2 years were robbed at gunpoint. Three of my eight.”
The Pennsylvania congressman said he called around to other members’ offices and got the “same sort of story” and added that the crime level has deterred guests from coming in.
He also said he discovered that Washington, D.C., defunded the city police force by $100 million, which was 1/6 of their budget. D.C. police are down 473 officers, Meuser said, and the force is at “the lowest level of officers since 1970” when, he noted, there was “a far different population and far different other circumstances.”
“We have prosecutors that are defense attorneys,” Meuser said. “They sympathize with the criminals. They're paid for, and this is legit, by the George Soros’ of the world, and in some cases they're prosecuting in the neighborhood of 40%, even 35% of those being arrested.
“My bill will defund those — let's use the defunding against them — who don't prosecute at least 67%,” he continued. “So, only two-thirds of those who are arrested should be prosecuted or you don't get funding. And, lastly, the cities that do that, like San Diego, for instance, their crime rate is 1/4, 1/6 of what it is in same-size cities throughout the nation. So, it can work.”
Meuser said he’s counting on bipartisan support for his bill and that “it’s not just Republicans getting mugged and getting cars hijacked.”
“We've had [Rep.] Henry Cuellar [D-Texas get carjacked],” he said. “We had a member in Pennsylvania just last year, right outside of Philadelphia, get their car hijacked and stolen. So, this should certainly be a bipartisan effort.”
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Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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