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Joe Biden disagrees with Rashida Tlaib's call to end 'policing', Jen Psaki says it's 'not the president's view'

Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to the Democratic lawmaker's radical call in the wake of Daunte Wright murder saying Biden believes more in reforms and accountability

The Democratic Party has in the past found itself split over the idea of defunding police departments in the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that spread across the US like wildfire. The progressive wing of the party sought the radical step while the centrist voices were less convinced about it. Even when the party lost a number of seats in the House in the election last November, prominent Democrats like President Joe Biden and South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn felt ideas like ‘defund the police’ played a key role behind the party’s adverse results in many House elections. 

President Joe Biden has also been opposed to the idea of defunding the police. While he refused to back the idea during the presidential run, he reiterated the same after entering the White House. And now, the 78-year-old has differed once again with the idea after Michigan Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib, who is a member of the progressive ‘Squad’, called for an end to “policing, incarceration, and militarization”.

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The 44-year-old Tlaib, who is a descendant of Palestinian immigrants, came up with a tweet following the killing of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man in the same Minnesota where Floyd was killed last May, in police firing during a traffic stop last Sunday, April 11. The accused officer, Kim Potter, could have mistaken her gun for the Taser, according to officials and she resigned along with the local police chief. But Wright’s death reignited the outrage against police atrocity. 

“It wasn’t an accident. Daunte Wright was met with aggression & violence. I am done with those who condone government funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed,” Tlaib wrote. 

This is not the first time that the Michigan Democratic lawmaker has called for ending police funding and shutting all prisons. Last July, besides calling for defunding the police after Floyd’s death, Tlaib also said in an interview with The Guardian that prisons in the US should release pre-trial, older and medically vulnerable inmates in times of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Tlaib's view is not president's, says White House

But the White House was quick to distance itself from Tlaib’s latest view on policing, incarceration and militarization. Speaking during a media briefing on Tuesday, April 13, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tlaib’s view is not the president’s personal one. “The president’s view is that there are necessary outdated reforms that should be put in place, that there is accountability that needs to happen, that the loss of life is far too high, that these families are suffering around the country, that the Black community is exhausted from the ongoing threats they feel,” she said. 

She also said the president believed that “necessary reforms in place” can be made with help of legislation, including the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. “Look, we all know we have to root out systemic bias in law enforcement and we feel the best way to do that is the Justice in Policing Act,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after Tlaib posted her tweet, adding that he will put the bill on the Senate floor.

Tlaib received support from fellow ‘Squad’ member and Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley who tweeted saying in connection to the Wright tragedy: “From slave patrols to traffic stops. We can’t reform this” but a number of top Democrats felt otherwise. 

Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine told reporters: “We definitely need reforms in the space of qualified immunity. But I, I am not in the camp that says, you know, we should disrespect police, we should reform police where police are necessary.”

“I don’t need to tell anybody what to say, you asked me what I think,” the Democrat said in response to Tlaib’s tweet. “I was a mayor with a police force. I was governor with the state police force. Our police, I mean, look, I’m going to a funeral, a police officer right now, gave his life to protect us and we need good policing.”