In response to Donald Trump’s MAGA allies pushing their dangerous anti-safety agenda at the RNC convention tonight, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison released the following statement: 

“The RNC focused on crime tonight so perhaps they should’ve had their nominee and convicted felon Donald Trump deliver his keynote address early. The MAGA extremists on stage made clear why crime skyrocketed under Donald Trump’s leadership and why they cannot be trusted to make our communities safer if given a second shot in the White House. 

“Every speaker on stage tonight backs Trump and J.D. Vance’s dangerous Project 2025 agenda to defund law enforcement, put partisan politics over border security, and pardon violent January 6 insurrectionists. 

“In sharp contrast, President Biden has provided strong, steady leadership and delivered for the American people, cleaning up after Trump’s failures. It was Joe Biden who brought the violent crime rate down to a near 50-year low after it skyrocketed under Trump. He worked across the aisle to deliver common sense gun safety reforms as Trump and MAGA Republicans cave to the NRA, and he took action to strengthen our border security after Trump ordered his allies to tank a tough and fair, bipartisan border deal. The Republicans can try to lie and obfuscate their dangerous Project 2025 agenda, but Americans see right through it and will reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris, who have a real record to run on of making our communities safer and more secure.” 

FACT: Under President Biden crime is down, police funding is up, and America is safer.

• In 2023, violent crime fell to a near 50-year-low as murder rates fell 13% nationally and plummeted in major cities. This trend is continuing in 2024, with violent crime and the murder rate on track for the sharpest decrease in history.

• President Biden has invested billions of dollars in funding for public safety.

• Executive Director of the Fraternal Order of Police: “During [Biden’s] administration, there’s no doubt we have seen historic increases in the amounts of federal money going to law enforcement.”

FACT: Donald Trump attacks law enforcement, wants to cut their funding, and as president oversaw the largest spike in homicides since at least 1905.

• As president, Donald Trump oversaw the largest single-year spike in the murder rate in more than a century.

• As president, Trump proposed a $400 million cut to local law enforcement funding. 

• Trump has demanded the defunding of federal law enforcement, while proposing using the FBI and Justice Department to go after his political enemies. 

• Trump says he would withhold federal funding from local police departments that don’t adopt policies like stop-and-frisk or assist in mass deportations.

• Donald Trump is a convicted felon and has been found liable for sexual assault – and has promised to pardon violent rioters who attacked law enforcement and stormed the Capitol on January 6. 

Every single one of Trump’s MAGA Republican cronies in Congress voted against the American Rescue Plan, which included hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local governments that could be used to boost law enforcement. 

ABC News: “President Joe Biden will announce Friday that $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan has been committed to police departments and public safety across the U.S. … These funds show what has been reported from cities through the end of 2021. The COVID-19 relief law included $350 billion for state and local governments to reduce violence.”

White House: “The American Rescue Plan (ARP) has provided over $15 billion to prevent crime and promote public safety, including community violence intervention programs and crisis responders, while Bipartisan Safer Community Act —the most significant gun safety legislation in the last 30 years—provides $250 million in funding for community-based violence prevention initiatives, in addition to key investments for schools to expand mental health services and violence intervention programs.”

Instead of doing anything to address gun violence in America, Trump stood in the way of commonsense action and made it easier for dangerous individuals to obtain guns.

New York Times: “Conceding to N.R.A., Trump Abandons Brief Gun Control Promise”

“President Trump on Monday abandoned his promise to work for gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association, bowing to the gun group and embracing its agenda of armed teachers and incremental improvements to the background check system.”

The Hill: “The [Trump] White House on Monday issued a statement warning that President Trump would veto proposed legislation to enhance background checks for gun purchases if it passes the House and Senate.”

Politico: “Trump quietly used regulations to expand gun access”

Trump told his MAGA Republican allies in Congress to kill the toughest, fairest bipartisan border bill in decades, which President Biden negotiated.

Vox: “Trump made this clear when he reportedly urged Republicans in Congress to turn against the bipartisan Senate border security bill scheduled for a vote Wednesday so that he could keep the issue alive through the presidential election. His supporters have largely fallen in line.”

Trump has continued to side with violent January 6 rioters over law enforcement – he refused to call for prosecution of January 6 rioters and has instead promised to pardon many of them. 

Business Insider: “Then-President Donald Trump didn’t want to specifically call for the Justice Department to prosecute January 6 rioters or forcefully condemn those who stormed the Capitol as unrepresentative of the MAGA movement.”

The Hill: “Trump describes imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters as ‘hostages’”

Washington Post: “Trump vows pardons, government apology to Capitol rioters if elected”

NBC News: “Former President Donald Trump promised Wednesday night that if he is elected he will pardon a ‘large portion’ of the people convicted of federal offenses for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

​​Washington Post: ​​“Former president Donald Trump on Thursday praised and embraced a woman convicted of defying police orders on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. … Trump has steadily escalated his advocacy for people charged in the Capitol riot, including by pledging to pardon them if he returns to the White House, praising them as patriots, participating in a recording with Jan. 6 prisoners singing the national anthem, and playing it at his first rally of the 2024 campaign last month.”

Trump: “January 6, it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. And they were there proud, they were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable — and it was a beautiful day.”

NBC News: “Trump spoke at a fundraiser for Jan. 6 defendants”