WASHINGTON ― As Republicans ramp up their attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris for her remarks on the “defund the police” movement, they remain locked into defending Donald Trump, a convicted criminal who literally salutes violent insurrectionists who beat police officers on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Ironic, isn’t it,” said a Republican National Committee member who spoke on condition of anonymity, pointing out that Trump also has called for “defunding” federal law enforcement. “He wants to dismantle the FBI.”
Harris, a former prosecutor and later the attorney general of California, never signed onto calls to “defund” entire police departments, but said she did support “reimagining” how much money was devoted to police compared to social services in crime-ridden communities. On June 9, 2020, she said in an interview just days after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police that “this whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities.”
The coup-attempting former president and his allies have worked to spread those remarks to make her look soft on crime ― even though Trump has promised to pardon all those prosecuted for their actions on Jan. 6, including those who attacked police officers with flag poles, sticks, a baseball bat, pepper spray and even the officers’ own Tasers.
“Trump oversaw the largest single-year spike in the murder rate in more than a century, proposed defunding law enforcement in every single one of his budgets and wants to pardon the criminals who violently assaulted police officers on Jan. 6,” Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said. “A Donald Trump presidency means more shootings, more deaths and more criminals like him with easy access to guns.”
Trump began the practice of standing at attention for Jan. 6 rioters his March 2023 rally in Waco, Texas. It’s since become a feature of his rallies: a recording of incarcerated rioters singing the national anthem plays, interspersed with Trump’s reading of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Trump campaign officials did not respond to HuffPost queries about whether Trump is rethinking his pledge to pardon insurrectionists or his honoring of them at his rallies.
By the end of last year, the former president had been indicted by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., and state prosecutors in Georgia, for actions related to overturning the election he lost; by federal prosecutors in Florida, for refusing to turn over secret documents he had taken to his Palm Beach country club upon leaving the White House; and by New York prosecutors, for falsifying business records to hide a hush payment to a porn actress in the days before the 2016 campaign.
He has since been convicted on 34 felony counts in the New York case, while the trial judge’s decision to dismiss the documents case is under appeal. The 14 felony counts in Atlanta and the four counts in Washington are still awaiting trial.
“But he’s still leading in spite all of that,” said David Kochel, a Republican consultant from Iowa who has not supported Trump. “Normal rules don’t apply to Donald Trump.”
Other anti-Trump Republicans are not convinced that Trump’s attacks on Harris on law enforcement issues will work.
“You saw what she said about Gaza protesters this week,” said Fergus Cullen, a former GOP state chair in New Hampshire, referring to Harris’ statement condemning pro-Hamas protesters. “She can just pivot back to her ‘back the blue’ days as a prosecutor and attorney general. The same issue that hurt her in the 2020 primaries helps her now in a general election. And the Dem base will give her a pass to campaign as more of a centrist.”
Fellow former New Hampshire GOP chair Jennifer Horn said she is no longer surprised by what her one-time party will do and say in service of Trump.
“The GOP doesn’t know how to campaign against her. She’s an intelligent, accomplished, courageous woman ― all the things GOP leaders hate in women,” Horn said.