There's "no question" that Democrats and their "bad public policy" are behind the dramatic rise in violent crimes in the U.S., and it will cost them seats in the 2022 midterm elections, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said Tuesday on Newsmax.
"This is happening because Democrats are soft on crime," Drew said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "We have record-high crime in Philadelphia with 500 homicides. The records always keeps getting shattered in Chicago … it's all across the country in big cities."
The main culprit, he added, was the liberals' push for bail reform.
"It was meant to make sure that what we did with bail made sense and that we didn't keep people in jail who didn't need to be in jail," Van Drew said. "Violent criminals, criminals committing real crimes absolutely should be in jail."
The rise in crimes will affect the way people are voting, he said.
"Wherever I go, I can talk to people in the inner cities, and it doesn't matter what race, color, or creed," Van Drew said. "They are right. They want a safe place."
His comments come after the news that Darrell Brooks, the Milwaukee man accused of driving through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and killing several people, had been released days before on $1,000 cash bail for another violent incident.
"What can you expect, other than there to be horrific problems in the cities?" said Van Drew, pointing out the incidents of smash-and-grab robberies that have been resulting in a tremendous amount of damages in San Fransisco and other cities.
"How can we expect to be safe when we're letting bad people right back into the streets?" the congressman said. "It's wrong. We're hurting people in every age group. We're destroying the social fabric of our country, and we have to stop and it's time to do it now. You know, it's just one more thing that isn't going well, quite frankly, in the country."
Van Drew also denied contentions from White House press secretary Jen Psaki that the rise in crime can be blamed on the pent-up anger and energy from people being quarantined because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I don't agree with anything that Jen Psaki says," Van Drew said. "This is just one more thing that she says that absolutely makes no sense. COVID has nothing to do with criminals that are released when they shouldn't be."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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