Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki attempted to deflect blame for rising crime rates across the country, even going so far as to try and pin the blame on the Republican Party. During a press briefing, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed Psaki on a claim made by Biden adviser Cedric Richmond where he said Republicans defunded the police because they opposed Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

According to The Daily Wire:

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS REPORTER: Okay. Something one of the advisors said this weekend — Cedric Richmond — he said, “Republicans defunded the police by not supporting the American Rescue Plan.”  But how is it that that is an argument to be made when the President never mentioned needing money for police to stop a crime wave when he was selling the American Rescue Plan?

JEN PSAKI, WH PRESS SECRETARY: Well, the President did mention that the American Rescue Plan, they’ll — the state and local funding — something that was supported by the President, a lot of Democrats who supported and voted for the bill — could help ensure local cops were kept on the beat in communities across the country. As you know, it didn’t receive a single Republican vote. That funding has been used to keep cops on the beat.

DOOCY: But at the time, that was sold as: These local police departments might have a pandemic-related budget shortfall — not, “We need to keep cops on the beat because there’s crime wave.”

PSAKI:  I think that any local department would argue that keeping cops on the beat to keep communities safe when they had to, because of budget shortfalls, fire police is something that helps them address —

Watch the back-and-forth here:

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