President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris used a crime report that showed lower homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery numbers to snub Republicans opposing his American Rescue Plan.
The president has been more outside the public eye than ever since he dropped his presidential bid for a second term, but the statement put out Saturday is one way he’s staying involved.
“This did not happen by accident,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House. “Our American Rescue Plan – opposed by every Republican in Congress – delivered $15 billion to cities and states to invest in public safety and violence prevention, keeping cops on the beat while working with community leaders to interrupt and prevent crime.”
No House or Senate Republicans voted for the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a bill that provided $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief for Americans. Biden also cited gun legislation, which he signed into law in June 2022, as a reason for the decrease in crime.
The report Biden cited showed that homicides are down 17%, rapes down about 9.7%, robberies down around 6.1%, and aggravated assaults are down about 5.4%.
Crime has generally decreased across the board since the early 1990s, but has seen a spike in recent years.
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“Americans are safer today than when Vice President Harris and I took office,” Biden said, mentioning Harris first again. “We can’t stop now. That’s why I will continue to urge Congress to fund 100,000 additional police officers and crime prevention and community violence intervention programs, and make commonsense gun safety reforms such as a ban on assault weapons.”
The White House announced Friday that Biden will join Harris on the campaign trail next week, a first since he dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris. He’ll serve the next couple of months as a lame-duck president after having declined to continue his reelection bid.
