Pelosi seeks to bury ‘defund the police’: The Note

The TAKE with Rick Klein

It was a raging debate contained in the Democratic Celebration in 2020.

The nation’s high elected Democrats are doing what they’ll to ensure it is not in 2022.

With the primary voting of the midterms beginning Monday, as early voting begins in primaries in Texas, Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi is saying as clearly as potential that “defund the police” isn’t a slogan Democrats are working on.

“With all of the respect on the planet for [Rep.] Cori Bush, that isn’t the place of the Democratic Celebration,” Pelosi stated on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, referring to the Missouri Democrat who stated final week she’s going to proceed to make use of the phrase in midterm messaging. “Make no mistake: Neighborhood security is our accountability.”

Pelosi went a beat additional, paraphrasing Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., a 33-year-old freshman Home member whom Pelosi described as “approach on the left”: “Defund the police is useless.”

The feedback got here simply 10 days after President Joe Biden traveled to New York Metropolis to affiliate himself with the brand new crime-fighting efforts of Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer. At that occasion, Biden declared, “The reply is to not defund the police.”

“Defund” sentiments have misplaced steam even inside progressive politics of late, regardless of the anger over police brutality and frustration over the failure to cross policing reform on the federal degree.

As Pelosi acknowledged, the problem continues to divide some in her caucus, and quotes to that impact will get outsized consideration in marketing campaign advertisements. But it surely’s placing to see such definitive sentiments from each the Home speaker and the president whom Democrats hope will assist them preserve management of Congress this yr.

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

As former President Donald Trump turns the main target of his political vendetta to sitting South Carolina Home members, Sen. Lindsey Graham appears to be trying the opposite approach.

When requested by “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos about Trump’s intent to marketing campaign in opposition to South Carolina incumbents Reps. Nancy Mace and Tom Rice, Graham didn’t come to the protection of his fellow South Carolina Republicans.

“It is as much as him who he desires to marketing campaign for. I am not apprehensive about us taking again the Home,” stated Graham.

The remark comes simply days after Mace filmed herself praising the previous president in entrance of Trump Tower following his endorsement of her major challenger Katie Arrington, a former pentagon official.

Each Mace’s determined plea and Graham’s reluctance to go to bat for incumbents at odds with the twice-impeached former president are indicative of the grip Trump continues to have on the Republican Celebration.

The TIP with Alisa Wiersema

The beginning of this yr’s midterm election season is already displaying that political and legal fights over 2020-era mail voting practices proceed to loom in key battleground states, at the same time as voters start casting ballots.

One of the crucial high-profile examples of this dynamic is occurring in Texas, the place the primary in-person, early voters of 2022 head to the polls on Monday forward of the March 1 major. Voters might be casting their ballots beneath the necessities of a brand new legislation put in follow for the primary time this yr.

A number of provisions of the legislation have lengthy been questioned by Texas Democrats and voting rights advocates previous to the legislation’s passage late final yr. A kind of provisions — which prevented election staff from proactively soliciting voters to request mail poll functions — was quickly blocked on Friday by a federal choose who dominated that portion of the legislation violates the First Modification as a result of it’s too imprecise.

In the meantime, a unique election-related authorized growth unfolded in Wisconsin. The state Supreme Courtroom allowed a ban on poll drop containers to enter impact after this Tuesday’s mayoral major as an alternative of holding off till the election concludes in April, as The Wisconsin Elections Fee had beforehand requested.

NUMBER OF THE DAY, powered by FiveThirtyEight

Fifty-six, that is the share of Latinos who recognized as Democrats or as independents who leaned towards the Democratic Celebration in Gallup’s 2021 political affiliation information. It is a promising signal for Democrats that extra Latinos have not deserted the occasion given their shift towards the Republican Celebration within the 2020 presidential election, however as Geoffrey Skelley writes for FiveThirtyEight, we should not learn an excessive amount of into this. That is as a result of in comparison with different voters, Latinos do not have robust ties to both occasion. Read more from Geoffrey on why the Latino voter community is without doubt one of the swingiest components of the voters.

ONE MORE THING

“Inform the reality. Let the chips fall the place they might.” That is the recommendation from former Nixon aide Dwight Chapin — who went to jail in reference to Watergate almost half a century in the past — to former Trump aides now caught amid the fallout of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. ABC’s Rick Klein spoke with Chapin on “This Week” about his new ebook, “The President’s Man: The Memoirs of Nixon’s Trusted Aide.”

THE PLAYLIST

ABC Information’ “Begin Right here” Podcast.

Begin Right here begins Monday morning with ABC’s Ian Pannell in Ukraine discussing the potential of a Russian invasion. Then, ABC’s Cheynne Hazlett breaks down a timeline shift for COVID vaccines for youngsters beneath 5. And, ABC’s Emily Shapiro experiences on the unanswered questions within the 5 years for the reason that tragic deaths of two teen women in Delphi, Indiana. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

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