On Monday, during the second hour of CNN’s This Morning, chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju hosted a panel to discuss former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s campaign strategies. Over the course of the segment, Raju allowed The Atlantic writer David Frum to suggest that Trump was responsible for the 2020 crime wave, prompting Republican strategist Jesse Hunt to enlighten the panel on the true causes behind the spike.
Frum began with a quick recap of the steep reduction of crime from 1990 to 2014, omitting the fact that the integration of Republican policies was responsible for the decline. He also said that in 2014 “we probably had the lowest crime rates in the history of organized American society” but, then, “things went wrong and especially under Donald Trump, we saw the steepest increase in crime in America since the 1960s.”
Once again, Frum notably placed all of the blame on Trump, even though the second half of former President Barack Obama’s presidency saw a rise in crime. On the other hand, by the second half of Trump’s presidency, crime rates were steadily falling. Frum failed to mention that fact but instead asserted that “the Trump years saw a terrible crime wave, partly because of lax gun–gun laws in the year 2020.”
As if completely forgetting the events that occurred during that year, he singled out Trump’s supposed “lax gun laws” as the leading factor of the crime wave. Frum apparently also forgot about the tragedies that occurred through the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement after George Floyd’s death, including numerous shootings, store lootings, and the destruction of countless buildings amid cries to defund the police.
A Heritage Foundation study pointed to a “toxic trio” of “rogue prosecutors, defund the police zealotry, and demonization/demoralization of the police” as the predominant causes. Hunt supported that fact and demonstrated how the “toxic trio” phenomenon occurred primarily in Democrat-run cities:
The spike in crimes that you saw was predominantly under Democrat-run cities and Democrat policies that they were implementing on the local level. I'd also point out that it took burning cities, it took a massive spike in crime in these cities that we're talking about to get Democrats to wake up. They saw the polling and started to course correct.
Yet, Trump was the only villain to the fear-mongering Frum who declared that “If you're in danger, you're probably in danger from a gun that was bought under Trump, stolen under Trump, that is now being used against you.”
In reality, a Georgetown University study discovered that “guns are used defensively by firearms owners in approximately 1.67 million incidents per year.” And on the idea that people are being victimized with guns bought under the Trump administration, as The Reload’s founder Stephen Gutowski told NewsBusters back in 2022, there’s a long lag time between a gun being legally purchased and it being used for criminal activity.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN This Morning
6/17/2024
6:08:59 AM ESTDAVID FRUM: Between 1990 and 2014, we saw the steepest reduction of crime in American history. By 2014, we probably had the lowest crime rates in the history of organized American society. Unfortunately, after that, things–things went wrong and especially under Donald Trump, we saw the steepest increase in crime in America since the 1960s. The Trump years saw a terrible crime wave, partly because of lax gun–gun laws in the year 2020. We saw more guns bought in a single year than ever bought before in American history.
The good news is, since Trump left town the crime rate has begun to come down. And this year it's coming down very dramatically. So, Donald Trump, look, Donald Trump's genius–and he does have one–is he's the world's leading marketer of crap products. Anybody can sell a good steak, he sells a terrible steak. Anyone can sell a good vodka, he sells a terrible vodka. And he's doing that now. He's–the guy who presided over the steepest increase in crime since the 60s is saying “Vote for me, I'm anti-crime.” The guy who st–saw the steepest increase in the number of guns out there saying, “I will make you safe when you go what buy a loaf of bread.” If you're in danger, you're probably in danger from a gun that was bought under Trump, stolen under Trump, that is now being used against you.
MANU RAJU: Oops, oops. I knocked over my water as I was turning to you, Jesse.
JESSE HUNT: You’re okay.
RAJU: Uh, real quickly, just on Biden and–or Trump and…
HUNT: Well, I'd say, first of all, like, the spike in crimes that you saw was predominantly under Democrat-run cities and Democrat policies that they were implementing on the local level. I'd also point out that it took burning cities, it took a massive spike in crime in these cities that we're talking about to get Democrats to wake up. They saw the polling and started to course correct. I don't necessarily think voters are that interested in somebody being reactionary with their politics…
RAJU: At the end of the day, at the end of the day, of course it depends on how the voters are going to feel come November. We're gonna talk much, much more. We have–we have more to get to.
(...)
