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Congress has the right to review and overturn all laws passed by Washington, D.C.’s local government. That’s what’s happening now with a new crime bill that would have eliminated mandatory minimum sentencing and updated the District’s criminal code. On Monday, Mar. 20, President Joe Biden blocked the bill that Republicans have criticized as weak on crime. This is the same man who voted for the 1994 crime bill credited with fueling an era of mass incarceration.
So Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette asks why Republicans are still trying to paint President Biden as soft on crime when his actions prove otherwise:
Biden has been in public life and on the government payroll as a senator from Delaware, vice president, and now president since 1973. That’s when he was first sworn into the Senate at the age of 30. He’s 80 now.
After 50 years in politics, there are no surprises left with Old Joe. What we see is what we get. And by now, we should have seen it all…except, that is, for Republicans, who have apparently missed a hell of a lot. Maybe they were sleeping on Biden, or not paying attention. Maybe they’re not very bright or poor judges of character. Or maybe they’re so blinded by politics and ideology that the only song they know how to sing about any Democrat is that he or she (or fill in the blank) is … wait for it … soft on crime.
There it is. I don’t know where this familiar accusation comes from. Maybe the fact that advocacy groups like Legal Aid or the American Civil Liberties Union are replete with liberal Democrats. Or the fact that many Democrats opposed the three strikes law, which eliminated judicial discretion for multiple offenders, and also supported efforts to defund the police. Or could it be something more nefarious, something having to do with race? African Americans and Latinos vote for Democrats more often than Republicans. And as Republicans see it, these two groups dominate the crime blotter. However we got here, this is where we are. Republicans are stuck on stupid and locked into this narrative that all Democrats, including Biden, are soft on crime.
