At a Senate Republican press conference introducing their version of a policing bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham claimed none of this is Trump’s fault and blamed Obama.
Graham said, “I’m getting a little tired of being lectured to by my Democratic colleagues that all of this is Trump’s fault. You had eight years under President Obama. The Justice and Policing Act none of it was taken up virtually. Let’s knock that off. You’re making no points with me, trying to suggest that we’re bad and y’all are not when it comes to this issue. You had eight years, no attempts to ban chokeholds, no attempts to do any of the things we all agree we need to do now. If you want to fight about that, let’s fight. If you want to admit that the country needs to move on together, let’s do it.”
Sen. Graham lied about the timeline. Democrats never had eight years of Senate control when Obama was president. Democrats had months not years when they had enough votes to pass legislation on their own.
Video:
Lindsey Graham throws a fit and yells at Democrats that police brutality is not Trump's fault and blames Obama for not doing anything, which is false, about policing. pic.twitter.com/vEIRcA81sL
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) June 17, 2020
Obama did implement several policing reforms that were all undone by Trump.
As NBC News reported:
In August 2017, Trump reversed an Obama policy that banned the military from selling surplus equipment to police, a measure that had been put in place amid criticism over the armored vehicles, tear gas and assault rifles used to control protests after the police killing of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
In addition, in September 2017, the Justice Department said it would stop the Obama-era practice of investigating police departments and issuing public reports about their failings. For example, the Justice Department had investigated the Ferguson Police Department and found unconstitutional, unlawful and racist behavior and policing within the department.
Trump’s record on policing is one of failure, and Lindsey Graham’s efforts to blame Obama are delusional falsehoods told in a bid to save a dying presidency and Republican Senate majority.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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