Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is planning to introduce a resolution next week condemning former President Donald Trump’s call to “defund” federal law enforcement agencies, according to a Tuesday letter he sent to his colleagues.
“Donald Trump’s call for defunding federal law enforcement agencies is a baseless, self-serving broadside against the men and women who keep our nation safe,” Schumer wrote in the “Dear Colleague” letter. “The former President and his allies in Congress must not subjugate justice and public safety because of their personal grievances.”
Trump’s call to defund the FBI and the Justice Department came just a day after his historic arraignment. He took to his bootleg Twitter platform Truth Social to post an all-caps screed joining MAGA House Republicans who have been using his indictment in Manhattan to push for Congress to “defund” federal law enforcement.
“REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS SHOULD DEFUND THE DOJ AND FBI UNTIL THEY COME TO THEIR SENSES,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “THE DEMOCRATS HAVE TOTALLY WEAPONIZED LAW ENFORCEMENT IN OUR COUNTRY AND ARE VICIOUSLY USING THIS ABUSE OF POWER TO INTERFERE WITH OUR ALREADY UNDER SIEGE ELECTIONS!”
Earlier this month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) also suggested House Republicans are considering using their thin majority to try to cut funding for federal law enforcement.
“We control the power of the purse… We’re gonna have to look at the appropriations process and limit funds going to some of these agencies, particularly the ones who are engaging in the most egregious behavior,” Jordan said during a Fox News interview.
When Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo asked if he meant the DOJ and the FBI, Jordan replied, “Yeah.”
“And what I’d really like, frankly, I’d really like for the government just to stay out of the election process,” he added, pulling a line from Trump’s conspiracy theory playbook.
Jordan is not the only MAGA-aligned lawmaker to call for defunding federal law enforcement after the party has attacked progressive Democrats for years for their interest in overhauling local police department’s budgets and investing more in community programming.
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have also made similar statements in recent months in defense of Trump.
House GOP’s calls for defunding federal law enforcement in response to Trump’s indictment is divorced from reality, as the DOJ and the FBI are not involved in the former president’s criminal prosecution by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump was charged under New York law with 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“Senators from across the political spectrum and of both political parties should denounce such attempts by the former President and his allies to degrade public trust in our federal law enforcement agencies,” Schumer wrote in his letter, which seeks to put his Republican colleagues on the record about their support for law enforcement over Trump.
Read the letter here:
