Senator Schmitt Blasts Soros-Funded Soft-On-Crime Policies, Praises Trump’s D.C. Crime Crackdown

WASHINGTON - Today, during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) questioned witnesses about Democrats' soft-on-crime policies that have plunged America's once-great cities into chaos and the lessons that can be learned and applied from the Trump administration's successful efforts to restore law and order in Washington D.C.

Soft-on-crime policies are often associated with George Soros-funded organizations, such as the Vera Institute of Justice and the Tides Advocacy Fund. Other soft-on-crime organizations, like the Community Justice Action Fund, are themselves funded by Soros-funded organizations like the Tides Network. Together, they create an ecosystem that promotes leftist policies like cashless bail, diversion programs designed to avoid incarceration, and expanding court jurisdiction to include "emerging adults" aged 18-25 years-old. These measures are counterintuitive, harm law-abiding citizens, and lead to higher rates of recidivism and increased leniency for serious offenses.

Watch Schmitt's full line of questioning HERE

Senator Schmitt on Lessons Learned from Trump's Successful D.C. Crime Crackdown:

Senator Schmitt: "Mr. Pemberton, thank you for your service. I just want to ask you, could you just walk through - because the numbers don't lie - in the District of Columbia, there's been a reduction of 53% in homicides, 57% in robberies, 75% in carjackings. What lessons can be learned, sort of at scale in DC, in places like Kansas City, for example, that has a high crime rate and an apologist mayor and a prosecutor that doesn't want to prosecute violent criminals?"

Det. Gregg Pemberton, Chairman of the D.C. Police Union: "That's an excellent point. What our organization has been shouting for the past five years - since, I mentioned, that the rhetoric and the policy changed back in 2020 - is that you need to have the proper number of police officers, and they need to be able to have the tools and resources to go out into these communities and do their job - professionally, responsibly, constitutionally. If you do that, and you have a prosecutor that backs those officers, like we now do here in the District of Columbia, guess what? You can reduce crime in seven days. That's what we saw in the District of Columbia. We saw federal agents surge in, we saw the National Guard taking post in these neighborhoods, and we saw a prosecutor who took all of our arrests seriously. Within the first week there was a remarkable night and day difference."

Senator Schmitt: "And a morale boost, I'm sure, for your officers too, right? When there's actually a police presence and prosecutions."

Det. Gregg Pemberton: "Absolutely."

Watch the exchange with Det. Gregg Pemberton HERE.

Sen. Schmitt Presses CJAF's Gregory Jackson on Soros-Funded Soft-on-Crime Agenda:

Senator Schmitt: "Mr. Jackson, you're listed as the former Deputy Director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, previously served as Executive Director of the Community Justice Action Fund, and now serve as the organization's Executive Advisor. Is that correct?"

CJAF Executive Advisor Gregory Jackson: "Yes, sir."

Senator Schmitt: "I want to just read some past statements from the Community Justice Action Fund:"

"In 2019 an op-ed, CJAF founder and another senior advisor stated the following, 'It is in this critical moment, we're finally saying firmly that we must divest in policing.'"

"In a 2020 letter, CJAF, stated 'We must divest from aggressive policing.' [The letter] further stated, 'Public health approaches must be prioritized over policing to end gun violence', and that 'an anti-racist approach must always be a part of policymaking and advocacy on gun violence prevention'. Those were statements in 2019 and 2020. We all know what happened in the 'Summer of Love of 2020', where he had record high violent crime rates, including gun crimes and gutted police departments."

"In 2019 CJAF also said that every legislator that openly calls for mass deportations is enabling a mass radicalization of white individuals that are now emboldened to commit murder."

"CJAF also identified ICE as pushing a white nationalist agenda: 'This white nationalist agenda is used by the deportation force of ICE and CBP to lock up black and brown immigrants across the country. It lives through the courts and police departments that lock up and kill black and brown bodies.'"

-

"I just would point out that this organization [Community Justice Action Fund] that you're an advisor of is part of the Tides Network, which is directly affiliated with George Soros and has gotten funding from USAID. So, if you want to understand why people are so committed to making sure USAID doesn't fund these radical organizations, some of these statements are exhibits A, B, C, D through Z. Thank you, Madam Chair."

Watch the exchange with CJAF Executive Advisor Gregory Jackson HERE.

###