Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida clashed with “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip and Democratic strategist Keith Boykin Monday night after Boykin claimed Donalds was “lying” about crime increasing.
FBI statistics released in September showed a 3% decline in violent crime nationally, according to CNN, although some experts have noted discrepancies between local crime stats and those released by the Bureau. Donalds argued that crime was going up before Boykin cut him off, claiming that the Republican congressman was lying.
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“Crime is not massively up, that’s a lie!” Boykin shouted. “You’re lying! You’re lying! The FBI just released data this week that crime is going down! Oh my God… Abby, why do you let this man lie?”
The back and forth continued with Boykin and Donalds accusing each other of lying as Phillip tried to restore order, before questioning Donalds, pointing to the FBI statistics.
“If you look at crime rates in the United States since the pandemic to this current point, this current period in time, crime is up, over the years, crime is up, violent crime is up,” Donalds explained, before Phillip again referred to the crime stats.
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“Well, I’m looking at your chart right now, 2021 is when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office, look at that spike up in violent crime,” Donalds explained.
Boykin and Donalds then talked over each other some more, before Phillip intervened.
“We have to deal in facts here… It’s clear as day. The FBI put out statistics for the first half of this year. The numbers, the trend lines are going down in all of those different categories, murders, rapes, robberies, property crime, aggravated assault,” Phillip lectured Donalds. “For 2023, the trend line is going down. If you don’t believe the FBI, independent people who look at these numbers say the same thing. There was a spike in crime during the pandemic, that is true, nobody is disputing that. But the reality is, is that crime is going down. You don’t have to… twist the facts to make the case that people feel unsafe.”
The FBI data showed robbery was down 0.3% and aggravated assault went down 2.8%. Yet, the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ crime data showed rape, robbery and aggravated assault rose by 4.1% in 2023, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center.
“I’m not even twisting the facts,” Donalds responded. “You put up a chart. I just looked at the chart myself. The bottom line was from 2021. Well, what happened in 2021? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office. This is when Democrat politicians were all the rage for defund the police.”
The Marshall Project noted in July 2023 that 32% of police departments, including the New York Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, did not send data to the FBI and another 24% only sent partial data.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.