During a panel discussion on “crime surge” the hosts of Fox news’ “The Five” tried to blame President Joe Biden and liberal policies for the murder rate, but their argument was quickly shut down by former Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov, who destroyed her co-hosts’ false claims and the conservative cable network’s framing about the crime “surge” on Tuesday’s edition of “The Five.”
Speaking about news that the murder rate had skyrocketed 30 percent, Tarlov, who holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D., made clear that the FBI statistic was from 2020, when Donald Trump was president.
“The data that we’re talking about is 2020,” Tarlov told Fox News viewers and her co-hosts, including Jesse Watters and Dan Bongino, as the chyron read: “PASSING THE BLAME,” and “LIBERALS POINT TO PANDEMIC FOR SURGE IN VIOLENCE.”
“Those were the Trump years,” Tarlov explained. “So all of this blaming on President Biden that’s happening now – actually under President Biden’s watch the murder rate has even gone down.”
She didn’t stop there.
“Another important component of the FBI data: that the short term increases was in all regions, not just in those liberal cities, all regions. That means in places where conservatives are. That means that this can’t all be because of bail reform, defund the police, yada yada yada. And also the murder rate and the crime rate overall is lower than it was in the 1990’s, so conservatives are running around screaming, ‘we’ve never seen anything like this,’ you have seen something like this.”
Tarlov began her takedown after Bongino falsely claimed that the spike in the murder rate “was only in areas dominated by liberal politicians.”
The New York Times reported last week on the FBI’s data, noting that the “rise in murder was national, not regional.”
The segment also mentioned on gun violence, with Watters insisting that “people can still kill you with a knife,” after Tarlov had talked about America’s “rampant gun problem.”
On Monday NPR, reporting on the FBI’s 2020 statistics, also noted that “Much of the violence was driven by firearms, with nearly 77% of murders being committed with some sort of gun.”
Watch the segment below from Fox News:
Jessica: The data that we’re talking about is 2020. Those were the Trump years. Actually on President Biden’s watch, the murder rate has gone down. pic.twitter.com/ztnCIhBpdq
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 28, 2021
