Democratic mayors in some of the nation’s largest cities have been encouraging “lawlessness” as they push for defunding police departments in the wake of George Floyd‘s death, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said Saturday night.
“Some of these mayors … have allowed or even encouraged lawlessness, flat-out lawlessness in their street,” Scalise said during an appearance on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine.”
“Watching some of the parts of their cities in Seattle being taking over — people just randomly tearing down things and burning down cities — with the mayors, just in some cases disbanding the police station so that they can be burned down,” Scalise said. “This has got to stop.”
President Trump canceled his weekend trip to Bedminster, N.J., on Friday as the state imposed a mandatory 14-day quarantine for individuals entering the state from areas seeing a surge in coronavirus infections, but the president said he was staying home in Washington to monitor protests.
“I was going to go to Bedminster, New Jersey, this weekend, but wanted to stay in Washington, D.C. to make sure LAW & ORDER is enforced,” the president wrote on Twitter. “The arsonists, anarchists, looters, and agitators have been largely stopped.”
Scalise praised the president for trying to help cities establish law and order.
“And if you look at what President Trump has been very vocal about, it’s about reestablishing law and order and where those governors need help,” Scalise said. “He’s sending in National Guard to back them up to make sure that they can take their cities back. But some of these mayors are letting it happen.”
The congressman also criticized Democrats for not trying to find a bipartisan solution to police reform.
“Look, everybody in Washington knows this is a time where we have a moment in history where we can come together and solve some of these problems. But we also know it’s going to be a bipartisan solution,” Scalise said. “It’s not one party writing their own bill and shutting everybody else else out that’s going to do it. That’s a recipe for a lot of noise.”
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
