Today, Senator Tim Scott got called out by police for lying about police reform negotiations and falsely blaming Democrats for supporting defunding the police. In doing so, Tim Scott only further emphasized why negotiations actually failed – because Republicans acted in bad faith.

Last week, Tim Scott claimed that police reform talks fell apart because Democrats supported “defunding the police.”

CBS News: “Senator Tim Scott says police reform talks collapsed because Democrats supported ‘defunding the police’”

Tim Scott: “We said simply this: ‘I’m not going to participate in reducing funding for the police after we saw a major city after major city defund the police.’”

Today, two of the nation’s largest police organizations said Tim Scott is lying and at no point did legislative text propose “defunding the police.”

IACP and FOP Statement on Police Reform Negotiations: “Despite some media reports, at no point did any legislative draft propose ‘defunding the police.’ In fact, the legislation specifically provided additional funding to assist law enforcement agencies in training, agency accreditation, and data collection initiatives. It is our joint belief that the provisions under discussion would have strengthened the law enforcement profession and helped improve the state of community police engagement without compromising management and officers’ rights, authorities, and legal protections.”