FACT CHECK: Democrats Applaud Biden’s Name for Police Reform, Regardless of Blocking Latest Effort

President Joe Biden launched the mother and father of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man who was fatally overwhelmed by Memphis cops, as he known as for police reform Tuesday evening throughout his State of the Union deal with. 

Biden ignored the truth that Senate Democrats blocked a police reform invoice in 2020. 

“There are not any phrases to explain the heartbreak and grief of dropping a toddler,” Biden mentioned. “However think about what it’s wish to lose a toddler by the hands of the legislation.”

Biden went on to cite Nichols’ mom, Kristin Christensen: “With religion in God, she mentioned her son ‘was an attractive soul and one thing good will come from this.’”

Biden known as for Congress to “give legislation enforcement the coaching they want [and] maintain them to greater requirements” in a police reform invoice. 

“Let’s commit ourselves to make the phrases of Tyre’s mom come true: One thing good should come from this,” Biden later mentioned. “All of us on this chamber, we have to rise to this second. We will’t flip away. Let’s do what we all know in our hearts we have to do. Let’s come collectively and end the job on police reform.”

In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota by a police officer, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., proposed a police reform invoice that may create a nationwide policing fee to overview the felony justice system; gather knowledge on use of pressure by cops; ban using chokeholds by federal officers; and withhold federal funds from state and native legislation enforcement companies that don’t ban chokeholds.

Scott’s invoice additionally would withhold federal cash from police departments that fail to report no-knock warrants to the Justice Division.

Nevertheless, Senate Democrats—then within the minority—blocked Scott’s laws from coming to a vote. Then-Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Sick., mentioned the invoice from Scott, who’s black, was a “token, half-hearted method.”

Senate Republicans provided to permit ground votes on as many amendments as Democrats wished. Nevertheless, throughout negotiations, Scott mentioned that Democrats mentioned, “we’re not right here to speak about that” and “walked out.”

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