A speaker at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) summer meeting on Monday urged Democrats not to copy President Trump’s tough-on-crime approach – arguing that migrant crime, carjackings and other public safety threats “don’t matter to that many Americans.”
Insha Rahman, the vice president for advocacy and partnerships at the Vera Institute of Justice, made the shocking statement as she framed Trump’s Washington, DC, crime crackdown as a “huge opportunity” for the Democratic Party.
“You want to talk about the crime issues voters care about,” Rahman explained to Democrats, as she shared the results of a recent poll commissioned by Vera’s political advocacy arm, showing which types of crimes respondents believe will most impact them personally.
The poll from the George Soros-funded think tank showed gun violence at the top of the list (36%), followed by homelessness and public drug use (34%), muggings or assaults (34%), opioids and fentanyl abuse (31%), retail theft (29%), carjackings (29%) and migrant crime (28%).
“Where does Trump go?” Rahman continued. “Migrant crime, carjackings, the really lurid, awful stuff that is a crazy, crazy visual.”
“Don’t take the bait because most Americans are more worried about how we are going to address mental health issues, the visible homelessness that we see on streets, and how do we deal with mental health and other issues that drive the sort of random incidents that scare all of us – that’s what you should be talking about.”
Even though nearly a third of Americans, according to Vera’s own polling, expressed concern about the “lurid” crime Rahman accused Trump and Republicans of hyper-focusing on – she implored Democrats not to talk about those issues.
“Don’t take the bait and talk about migrant crime or carjackings or the things that actually don’t matter to that many Americans,” Rahman said.
The Vera Institute VP suggested Democrats should instead discuss “the policy proposals that we think work,” and specifically cited “cashless bail.”
The thrust of the presentation was that being tough-on-crime “reinforces the Republican brand” and doesn’t “build a brand for Democrats,” who will be hammered by the GOP regardless of their position on crime, according to Rahman.
She also urged Democrats not to bring up local crime statistics, even if they show a decline, because Trump would take credit for the drop.
“Don’t be afraid of the crime debate. Lean all the way in. Call out what Trump is doing and say the reason crime is going down, our community becoming safer, it’s because of us,” Rahman said.
The speaker singled out Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Democratic Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott as particularly good messengers for the “serious about safety and solutions” approach to the crime debate.
Rahman also pointed to a statement from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) – where the congressman slammed the DC crime crackdown as a “Epstein file” distraction and argued that “graffiti seems to be pretty sparse” in the nation’s capital – as a particularly bad response to tough-on-crime Republicans.
