Laughable 'Red State Murder Problem' Claim Debunked
In his continued quest to gaslight Americans, California Governor Gavin Newsom took to Truth Social in June to tell us not to believe our own eyes. The epic series of random crimes we’re witnessing are not blue state issues; no, what we have here is a “red state murder problem.” He’s presumably trying to get us to imagine hordes of AR-15-toting QAnon supporters running around the backwoods shooting innocent people.
RedState’s Jeff Charles and Jennifer Oliver O’Connell justifiably trashed Newsom for the post, with O’Connell pointing out that California’s crime has been skyrocketing while Newsom preens for the camera, and Charles opining that it’s local governments who are responsible for law and order in cities and not governors.
Here’s Newsom trying to project how reasonable he is despite the fact that he’s one of the most rabid leftist politicians on the planet:
Here’s what he claims in the laughable clip:
Hey everybody, it’s Governor Gavin Newsom and I know we’re all on this platform in search for the truth. But the truth is I have not been able to find a simple explanation for the fact that we have a red state murder problem. Eight of the top 10 states with the highest murder happen to be red states. So the question is simple: what are the laws and policies in those states that are leading to such carnage?
As usual, the facts are not on the governor’s side. He’s claiming that policies by Republican politicians have led to this savagery, but he’s leaving out one inconvenient point: a huge number of these murders are occurring in Democrat-run blue cities like St. Louis and the newly-crowned murder capital of the U.S., New Orleans.
There’s your simple explanation, Governor.
Newsom’s claims are based on a March report by think tank The Third Way, which claims it “champions modern center-left ideas.” Read, hard-core liberals. They wrote:
In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.
They back that up with plenty of data, and it is true, red states do have higher murder rates, with Mississippi leading the way, followed by Louisiana, Kentucky, and Alabama. Former Bush speechwriter and current Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen weighed in on Wednesday:
Take Missouri. Yes, it voted for Trump. But it is also home to two of the most dangerous cities — St. Louis and Kansas City — both of which are run by Democrats… the vast majority of Missouri’s homicides took place in its Democrat-run cities.
The same is true for Louisiana, which has two of the most lethal Democratic-run cities in the country: Baton Rouge… and New Orleans…Without those cities, the state’s murder rate would significantly drop.
He goes on to describe the same issue in states like Tennessee and Arkansas. In almost every case, the high murder rate was jacked up by cities run by Democrats. Anyone who lives in one of these cities knows what is going on – woke prosecutors, cashless bail laws, and a general uninterest in lowering crime.
Manhattan Institute fellow and author Rafael A. Mangual writes in the NY Post:
While [Philadelphia District Attorney Larry] Krasner, Newsom and other Democrats try to deflect, what we really should be asking is: Is it wise to pursue decarceration for its own sake when so many crimes are committed by those with lengthy criminal histories and active criminal justice statuses like probation or parole?
If Democrats are worried about losing touch with the American public on these questions, they should either change course, or better defend their decision to stay on the path they’re on. Telling the American public not to believe what they see on the news, however, is a losing strategy.
Democrats rarely take the blame for the results of their policies—just look at President Joe Biden blaming Putin and everyone else on the planet for high gas prices—and this shameless attempt to deflect from their failures by admonishing red states is pitiful. The American people can see through it.
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