All Americans deserve freedom from fear: to be confident that their children will come home safely from the store or the playground, and to know that their loved one will come home safely from their shift policing the streets. Young Americans deserve a president who’s fighting to keep guns out of school. Women deserve a president who has worked his whole life to end violence against women. Families deserve a president who has delivered safer neighborhoods.
Under President Biden, in 2023 the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history and violent crime fell to one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years. He defeated the gun lobby and passed the first significant federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years. And, Democrats provided funding for communities to hire more police.
During Donald Trump’s last year in office, murders surged by nearly 30 percent, the highest increase recorded in modern history. Trump tells families traumatized by gun violence to “get over it” and brags that he did nothing about guns. His budgets repeatedly cut law enforcement funding.
Americans deserve the freedom to be safe, and America is safer today than when President Biden first took office.
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POLICING & PUBLIC SAFETY
Democrats passed and President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, with the largest-ever federal investment in fighting and preventing crime, reducing violence, and investing in public safety. That funding enabled cities and states to invest more than $15 billion in public safety and violence prevention, putting more police officers on the beat for accountable community policing, as well as interrupting and preventing crime. In 2023, the Justice Department provided $5.8 billion tostate, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies, research institutions, and nonprofits to advance public safety – including funding for 1,730 new police officers in nearly 400 communities. Because police officers should be able to focus on fighting crime, President Biden secured the first-ever federal funding solely dedicated to community violence intervention programs; and he increased funding for crisis interventions, mobile crisis teams, and training for first responders and law enforcement. President Biden also signed legislation replenishing the Crime Victims Fund, which supports programs that assist survivors. Democrats also secured funding for extra security at places of worship and community institutions; and we are investing in Tribal public safety.
Public trust, as any police officer will tell you, is the foundation of public safety. Police cannot fulfill their role to keep communities safe without public trust and confidence in law enforcement and in the criminal justice system. Yet, there are places in America today where the bonds of trust are frayed or broken. President Biden took action to enhance public trust by signing a historic executive order on police reform alongside George Floyd’s family. He launched the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database with information on misconduct by federal law enforcement officers, and sharply restricted chokeholds and no-knock warrants for federal law enforcement. And, the Administration is publishing data on the use of force and is also preventing certain militarized equipment from being sold or transferred to local police agencies.
Trump oversaw the largest one-year increase in murders ever recorded. On January 6, he encouraged the rioters who attacked the police officers protecting our Capitol; since then, he has promised to pardon these convicted criminals. He is the candidate who wants to defund the police: As president, he repeatedly proposed cutting funding to state and local law enforcement programs, including the COPS program that funds local police officers, for three years in a row. He has called to defund the Department of Justice and the FBI. And, he says he will withhold federal funding from local police departments that don’t adopt policies like stop-and-frisk or assist in mass deportations.
Trump has been equally disastrous for accountable policing. As president, he reversed restrictions that limited the transfer of surplus military equipment to local police departments and effectively abandoned pattern-or-practice investigations into police misconduct. When protests followed George Floyd’s murder, he tweeted, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” and referred to protesters as “THUGS,” and tear-gassed nonviolent protesters outside the White House. If he gets another term, he will resume stop-and-frisk practices and withhold federal funding from local police departments that do not adopt this discriminatory policy. He’s promising to sign legislation to broaden qualified immunity to prevent legal accountability for police misconduct.
Democrats will pass his Safer America Plan, which calls on Congress to invest $37 billion to support law enforcement and crime prevention. That includes funding 100,000 additional police officers for accountable community policing and $5 billion in community violence intervention, which will help prevent crime, keep communities safe, and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. We will create a new Violent Crime Reduction and Prevention Fund to give federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement the resources they need to fight crime, including to hire more agents, prosecutors, and forensic specialists. We will give communities the tools to crack down on gun crime, retail crime, and carjacking. Democrats will build on the progress in President Biden’s executive order on effective, accountable policing by passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. And, we will end racial profiling and religious discrimination in law enforcement.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
[Democrats are] committed to rehabilitation and reentry for people returning to their communities after incarceration, and to building a criminal justice system that lives up to those ideals and ensures that everyone receives equal justice under law…
No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possession has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Those criminal records impose needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities, disproportionately affecting Black and brown people. President Biden took historic action to end this failed approach by pardoning people convicted federally for using or possessing marijuana. He has called on governors to use their pardon power to do the same for state-level offenses. And his Administration is taking a major step to reschedule cannabis so it’s no longer classified as more dangerous than fentanyl or methamphetamine.
President Biden has released a comprehensive strategic plan to improve the criminal justice system and strengthen public safety, including more than 100 concrete actions. The Administration is improving rehabilitation in jails and prisons and helping people rebuild their lives, an important step in reducing recidivism. It has invested nearly $1 billion in job training, addiction recovery, and reentry services across the country; and expanded access to Pell Grants, so people can earn a college degree while they are incarcerated, starting over with new skills. The Administration will keep investing in housing, mentorship, job training, and apprenticeship programs as well. It is working to end the school-to-prison pipeline by reissuing guidance from the Departments of Education and Justice to prevent disparate discipline of children of color and with disabilities and incentivizing states to develop community-based alternatives to prison for young people. And, President Biden reestablished the Justice Department’s standalone Office for Access to Justice to ensure that everyone can get legal assistance.
President Biden has used his pardon power to right historical wrongs. In addition to pardoning simple possession and use of marijuana, he’s pardoned or shortened the sentences of people convicted of other nonviolent drug offenses and pardoned approximately 2,000 gay, lesbian, and bisexual veterans who were convicted years ago just for being themselves.
Democrats will take action to expunge federal marijuana-only convictions. We will combat drug trafficking and expand the use of drug courts, interventions, and diversion for people with substance use disorders. We will fund a new Accelerating Justice System Reform grant program to provide jurisdictions with critical resources to foster community trust and safety, reduce inequity and justice system involvement, and alleviate burdens on police. We will expand access to public defenders and step up civil rights enforcement, including by boosting funding for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and hiring 50 new Assistant U.S. Attorneys. And, we will remove barriers to legal access, combat hate crimes, and counter cyber threats. To keep children and teens safe and out of the justice system, we will invest in after-school programs, community centers, and summer jobs. And, to ensure young people get a second chance after leaving the justice system, we will automatically seal and expunge juvenile records.
Democrats will end state-level use of private prisons and detention centers, and we will restrict state and local practices like solitary confinement, chokeholds, and restraints on pregnant inmates. We will guarantee access to medical care in prison and will eliminate profiteering from diversion, bail, electronic monitoring, commissaries, and reentry programs. We will support rehabilitation and education, including college programs, for inmates in prison and after their release. To help returning citizens succeed upon their release, we will boost access to transitional housing, affordable housing, mental health and substance use treatment. We will limit reincarcerating people federally to only serious violations of supervised release. And, we will work to expand “ban the box” so returning citizens can more easily find work, protect their right to vote, and protect their right to public services like Pell Grants and nutrition assistance.
Trump’s approach to criminal justice could not be more different. His Administration threatened federal prosecution for marijuana cases in states where marijuana was legal. As president, Trump granted fewer clemency requests than nearly every president since the start of the 20th century; and many of his grants were reserved for well-connected offenders and close friends and associates like Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and Charles Kushner. HisAdministration cut support for halfway houses and decreased the number of federal prisoners sent to transitional housing. And, it reinstated contracts with private prisons.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Ending violence against women has been the cause of President Biden’s life. In the U.S. Senate, with the help of courageous and committed advocates, he wrote the original Violence Against Women Act and spent the following decades working to expand and improve it with each reauthorization. As president, he was proud not only to reauthorize this landmark law but also to strengthen it. Democrats secured the highest-ever funding level for VAWA implementation, and are distributing record funding for local prosecutors, law enforcement, and survivor advocates. Crucially, the Administration has also expanded support for Native survivors and strengthened protections for Tribal communities; improved prevention and services for survivors of sexual assault, including through the Fairness for Rape Kit Backlog Survivors Act; expanded housing protections for domestic violence survivors; and increased services and support for survivors, including survivors of technology-facilitated abuse.
President Biden launched the first-ever National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, and the American Rescue Plan provided immediate crisis intervention, health supports, and emergency services for survivors. He expanded funding for campus sexual assault prevention and is keeping students safe on campus by restoring and strengthening protections under Title IX, including explicit protections for LGBTQI+ students. He signed legislation that narrowed the “boyfriend loophole” to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. He signed into law new protections to support survivors and address sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace. And, he signed a historic executive order on sexual assault and domestic violence in the military, transferring key decision-making authority from commanders to independent military prosecutors – the most significant transformation of the military justice system since the Uniform Code of Military Justice was established in 1950.
Trump has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t care about ending violence against women. As president, he failed to reauthorize VAWA. And, his Administration rolled back campus sexual assault protections, making it even harder for survivors to get the justice they deserve.
Democrats will work to end sexual assault, domestic violence, online abuse, and all violence against women. We continue to strengthen VAWA; keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers; and expand housing and legal services for survivors. To keep students safe on campus, we will work with schools to implement and enforce Title IX and end sexual harassment and assault in our nation’s schools. We will eliminate the rape kit backlog. And, we will strengthen legal protections for and support survivors of deepfake image-based sexual abuse building on the federal civil cause of action established under the president’s reauthorization of VAWA in 2022.
SPECIAL NOTE: The full platform for each party can be found on their respective websites. The following excerpts are unedited. Reader discretion is encouraged as these are political statements and have not been checked for accuracy. The Presidential Prayer Team is non-partisan and does not support or endorse any of the following statements.
