The 2022 State of the Union Address was given by #46 Joe Biden at 6PM Pacific on March 1, in the chambers of the 117th Congress.
Russia’s army had invaded Ukraine five days before on February 24 so, as we all had a right to expect, the Democrat administration took a position against wars of aggression, as does the RNC, and all people of good will worldwide.
But more immediately impactful to us Angelenos, 44 minutes into his address, President Biden surprised many by saying emphatically “We should all agree: the answer is not to defund the police, it’s to fund the police”.
President Biden’s State of the Union Address [62:16] The White House | 2022-03-01
Full text: whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2022/
The Presidential Twitter account simultaneously tweeted: “We have to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”
Throughout the “long, hot” summer of 2020, which featured a nationwide reexamination of law enforcement budgets, the Biden-Harris Campaign remained ambiguous on their intentions regarding police funding, using the murky term “redirect funding”. But even after taking office, from Inauguration Day 2021 until the 2022 SOTU, the Biden-Harris Presidential Administration maintained that same ambiguity regarding this central policy question of our times. Then, March 1, they suddenly came out against the defund approach, drawing predictably sharp complaints from fellow Democrats, such as Missouri Representative Cori Bush (D) and expressions of amazement and surprise from Republicans, such as Florida Representative Byron Donalds (R).
Surely DNC strategists noticed the September 13-19, 2021 Pew poll of 10,371 American adults, which showed that overall support for defunding had fallen to 15%, and that Black and Hispanic Democrat adults favor increasing police funding, at a rate of 38%, even greater than that rate among White Democrat adults, which was 32%.
Yes, you read that correctly. INCREASING.