WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today during a Senate Judiciary Committee on protecting law enforcement, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) slammed efforts by liberal groups and politicians to promote the defund police movement and reaffirmed his commitment to supporting law enforcement. Last year, Senator Tillis introduced the Protect and Serve Act, legislation that would create federal penalties for individuals who deliberately target local, state, or federal law enforcement officers with violence.
Watch Senator Tillis’ full remarks here.
Senator Tillis on ActBlue’s Website Hosting Campaigns To Demonize and Defund the Police
“I typed in ‘ActBlue,’ all one word, and ‘defund the police,’ and I got to this subpage in the aggregation engine for progressive candidates. What does it say? It’s ‘13.12 Run for Justice,’ a direct contribution to Black Lives Matter. What’s most fascinating about this is the first question they answer under frequently asked questions. Why 13.12 miles? Because ‘1312’ translates into the alphabet to A-C-A-B, which equals ‘all cops are bastards.’ This is on the ActBlue website that they raised $250,000. The same website raised $513 million between April 1 and June 30 of this year.”
“This radical concept of defunding the police has gone from the Radical Left, a minority of the party, to something that the primary fundraising engine for liberal progressives is now touting. This is a cancer, and we have to understand that we have to do work. It’s why I took the political step to work on the community safety bill. We have to take steps on that side, but for us to be dismissive about this not being a problem, I ask you, or anybody else here in law enforcement: do you consider your colleagues bastards? They didn’t say some of them. They didn’t say most of them. They said all of them. And so, we have to recognize this is a cancer. This has to stop. Somebody that knows ActBlue needs to know this is not helpful.”
Senator Tillis on Commonsense Legislation to Support Law Enforcement
“It is time for a change, and it’s time to stop this. This is killing people. This is endangering police officers. And it’s making the very communities that they suggest are at most at risk less safe. So, with that, I wanted to talk about a few pieces of legislation. Number one, I am a cosponsor of Senator Grassley’s bill. I hope we can get more data. Number two, I wish the Fraternal Order of Police were here because this is one of their top priorities, and they have data. We should make data-driven decisions the same way that Senator Cornyn and I made data-driven decisions on the community safety bill. I think we should look at the Protect and Serve Act. It’s a bill that I filed that makes it a federal crime to assault or murder a police officer. Up the ante. They will know, and they will react, and law enforcement officers will be saved. I also think we should take a look at Back the Blue and Thin Blue Line and Defending our Defenders Act. All bills this committee could take up and move forward. All bills that will make progress.”
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