During a live shot in downtown New York City for MSNBC late Thursday morning, White House correspondent Mike Memoli was repeatedly heckled by protesters critical of President Biden and the media. This occurred while Memoli was laughably trying to promote Biden’s trip to the city as a “model” for how Democrats can address surging crime rates across the country ahead of the midterm elections.
“Right now President Biden is in the air, he is on his way to New York City. And this trip is all about his plan to cut back on gun violence in cities across this country,” anchor Craig Melvin announced during his 11:00 a.m. ET hour show. He noted how “New York City saw a nearly 38% increase in all crime in January, compared to the same period last year.”
Turning to Memoli, Melvin remarked: “First of all, welcome back to New York. The White House sharing some details...about this gun violence reduction strategy, as it’s being called. It’s going to be a big part of messaging heading into the midterm elections.”
As Memoli was starting to parrot White House talking points on the topic, protesters could be heard shouting and a couple stood behind him. One had “Save Our City” and other messages written on an umbrella while the other held up a “Let’s Go Brandon” sign. A heckler off screen could be heard shouting: “We are the media now! The people in the media, you’re done!”
The frustrated reporter commented:
As you can probably hear some of the circus around me here, Craig. What the President understands, as you can tell from the charged rhetoric behind me, is this is going to be a really big issue in the midterm elections and what the President is eager to try to do is model behavior for many in his party.
Moments later, Memoli argued: “So this is a president who is going to be, more through his optics today than through the substance of what they’re announcing, demonstrating to Democrats how to really run on this issue in the midterm elections, Craig.”
The notion that Biden – who’s poll numbers have been plummeting, particularly on the issue of crime – would be serve as a “model” for Democrats, is patently ridiculous.
Referencing the hecklers, Melvin quipped: “Mike, thank you....And again, welcome back to New York City. That was part of our welcoming committee there.”
At that point, the anchor brought on left-wing New York Times Editorial Board member Mara Gay and praised a recent op-ed in the paper: “...you had a strong piece about crime just last month. I enjoyed, I read it, and here’s the headline: ‘The right way to stop rising crime in New York.’” Melvin quoted the article: “The challenge will be how to make the city safer without reverting to the over-policing, especially in black and Latino communities, seen under previous mayors.”
Gay proceeded to double down on the notion of “over-policing” and warned against increasing police funding:
You have to think about employment programs, you have to think about how to create jobs, community violence interrupters, health care....it’s much more complicated than simply increasing funding to law enforcement....we don’t find it acceptable to criminalize, essentially, black and Latino children in an effort to keep streets safe. We don’t think it’s necessary or – and we don’t believe it’s going to keep anybody safer....So we should not just be asking for more resources for law enforcement. We should also be ensuring that they go exactly where they are meant to instead of simply kind of feeding a beast that may not be keeping us safe but may actually be criminalizing people.
That is precisely the kind of ultra-woke, soft-on-crime approach that has led to violent crime surging nationwide but the liberal media are still pushing such disastrous policies.
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Here is a transcript of the February 3 segment:
11:24 AM ET
CRAIG MELVIN: Right now President Biden is in the air, he is on his way to New York City. And this trip is all about his plan to cut back on gun violence in cities across this country. And two big parts of his plan, increasing funding for law enforcement and aggressive enforcement of gun safety laws. This is some video of the President, just a short time ago, boarding Air Force One there at Joint Base Andrews. New York City saw a nearly 38% increase in all crime in January, compared to the same period last year. Homicides, as you can see there, homicides were down, but rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, shootings, car thefts, all of them up compared to the same time period last year.
NBC’s White House correspondent Mike Memoli is in New York, he’s here in the Big Apple. And so is Mara Gay, member of The New York Times Editorial Board, an MSNBC political analyst. An analyst we haven’t seen – we haven’t seen you in a while so it’s good that you’re back with us, Mara. We’ll get to you in just a moment.
But Mr. Memoli, I’ll start with you there. First of all, welcome back to New York. The White House sharing some details...
MIKE MEMOLI: Good to be here.
MELVIN: ...sharing some details about this gun violence reduction strategy, as it’s being called. It’s going to be a big part of messaging heading into the midterm elections. Mike, what do we know about what the President plans to say today?
MEMOLI: Well, Craig, there are really three pillars to the President’s crime strategy that he’s eager to talk about here in New York today. First is what you mentioned, not just increasing funding for police but really doing everything that they can to bolster resources for law enforcement across the board. The second has to deal with trying to tackle some of the root causes of crime. That’s in community intervention programs, rehab programs for formerly incarcerated individuals, and he’s going to be joined by the Attorney General Merrick Garland here to focus on some of the new announcements coming out of the Justice Department. Efforts that they’re taking to try to ramp up enforcement, especially of ghost guns.
HECKLER: We are the media now! The people in the media, you’re done!
MEMOLI: As you can probably hear some of the circus around me here, Craig. What the President understands, as you can tell from the charged rhetoric behind me, is this is going to be a really big issue in the midterm elections and what the President is eager to try to do is model behavior for many in his party.
We know that the “defund the police” movement was really a galvanizing force for many progressives. This is a president who has really kept his distance from it. And he’s going to be joined by Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain himself, somebody who understands and has said himself, telling Gabe Gutierrez just this morning, that “defund the police” is the wrong slogan, that public safety is not a bumper sticker.
So this is a president who is going to be, more through his optics today than through the substance of what they’re announcing, demonstrating to Democrats how to really run on this issue in the midterm elections, Craig.
(...)
MELVIN: Alright, Mike Memoli for us there. Mike, thank you. Thank you so much, Mike. And again, welcome back to New York City. That was part of our welcoming committee there.
Mara Gay, you and your colleagues on The New York Times Editorial Board, you had a strong piece about crime just last month. I enjoyed, I read it, and here’s the headline: “The right way to stop rising crime in New York.” And it reads in part, quote, “The challenge will be how to make the city safer without reverting to the over-policing, especially in black and Latino communities, seen under previous mayors.” Do you think President Biden’s plan can meet that challenge?
MARA GAY: We certainly hope so. The reality is that, you know, law enforcement is a key part, of course, of keeping our communities safe and we see that there’s no question about that. But crime is actually very complicated and the causes of it are complicated. And so when you really talk to people who think deeply about these issues, you know, it’s obvious that it’s not only police that are the solution.
You have to think about employment programs, you have to think about how to create jobs, community violence interrupters, health care. I think it’s clear that across the country some of the increases in crime we’ve seen have coincided with the pandemic. So it’s not enough to simply blame liberal or conservative policies or policing. You know, it’s not enough to give them the full credit or blame. It’s really got to be an all-hands-on-deck strategy and it’s much more complicated than simply increasing funding to law enforcement.
And I think, you know, the concern here in New York, right, is that what we don’t want is we don’t want to see a repeat of the 1994 crime bill, you know, of course which President Biden sponsored back in ’94. This is very different, what he’s proposing today, so that’s very good. But we don’t find it acceptable to criminalize, essentially, black and Latino children in an effort to keep streets safe. We don’t think it’s necessary or – and we don’t believe it’s going to keep anybody safer.So the real challenge is how to go after, you know, violent crime without essentially ensnaring, you know, young black and Latino, especially men and boys, in the – in the service of that goal. And really that’s precision policing.
So we should not just be asking for more resources for law enforcement. We should also be ensuring that they go exactly where they are meant to instead of simply kind of feeding a beast that may not be keeping us safe but may actually be criminalizing people. It’s a fine line to walk. And so I think the idea is it can be done.
MELVIN: Politically, as you know, this is going to be a potentially galvanizing issue as we head into these midterm elections in November. A lot of Democrats are probably going to have to answer some questions about rising crime in their cities. How can Democrats in districts and cities across the country effectively seize on this new strategy from President Biden and even Mayor Eric Adams’ plan?
GAY: Well, I think what we’re going to see from Mayor Adams today is a quite savvy approach, which, you know, this is a mayor who ran on public safety. He was a police officer, a police captain, and so he has the perspective of law enforcement. He also has the perspective of being a black man in America, where obviously black communities are over-policed and many times unfairly policed. So he’s going to understand how to walk that line. His challenge is making sure that he runs the government in a way that also does so.
And I think it’s clear that everybody wants to be safe. Safety is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. Every community wants to be safe. Communities want to be able to trust the police and they want to be safe from crime. So I think that’s really, you know, that’s going to be the goal. People want to be able to trust the police and they don’t want to have to fear from criminals or from the police. And that is really the goal and I think it’s – that Biden and Eric Adams are in a really good position to do that today if they get the tone right.
MELVIN: And those things are not mutually exclusive. Mara Gay, always enjoy your insight, always enjoy your analysis. I thank you, my friend. Thank you, thank you.
