Democratic Sen. Hirono Rejects Defund the Police Movement: ‘We’ve Never Taken the Position as a Party’

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said Wednesday that her party does not support the movement to “defund the police.”

“We’ve never taken the position as a party that we should defund the police,” Hirono said in an interview with CNN’s Ana Cabrera. “I am a progressive Democrat. I have never said that we should defund the police.”

President Joe Biden delivered a speech Wednesday afternoon focused mostly on an announcement that he was taking executive action to crack down on illegal gun sales. However, he also highlighted $350 million in federal Covid-19 funding that states and cities can use, in part, to hire more law enforcement personnel.

Cabrera asked Hirono whether she expected Republicans to continue criticizing Democrats for efforts to “defund” the police. Hirono didn’t address the funding the White House highlighted, but took the opportunity to lament a lack of action on issues related to her party’s priorities on criminal justice.

“There are a lot of things we need to do on the law enforcement side, including, by the way, addressing the rise in domestic violent extremism, the prevalence of gun violence that is occurring on a way, way too regular basis in our country,” Hirono said. “We can’t get even the most basic gun legislation through. Why? Because there are so many Republicans who won’t go there… The fact is that there is a rise and concern about domestic extremism in our country and we better face up to that.”

Watch above via CNN.