Former Vice President Joe Biden was caught in a leaked audio admitting that Republicans “beat the hell out of” Democrats by using the “Defund the Police” slogan to scare voters away from supporting the party at the ballot box.
The audio was leaked from a private “listening session” made on Tuesday with civil rights leaders.
“I also don’t think we should get too far ahead of ourselves on dealing with police reform in that, because they’ve already labeled us as being ‘defund the police.’ Anything we put forward in terms of the organizational structure to change policing, which I promise you will occur, promise you,” said Biden on the leaked audio.
“Just think to yourself and give me advice if we should do that before January 5th, because that’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country, saying that we’re talking about defunding the police,” he continued.
“We’re not,” Biden added. “We’re talking about holding them accountable.”
A Biden transition official released a statement defending the comments.
“President-elect Biden is the same person behind closed doors that he is public; honest, direct and realistic about the challenges facing our nation the day he is sworn in,” the statement read.
“As he made clear throughout the campaign, he believes in supporting bold and urgent reform to our criminal justice system while continuing to support law enforcement’s mission to keep our communities safe,” the statement concluded.
Not surprisingly, leaders from the “Black Lives Matter” organization complained that they had not been invited to the private meeting where Biden talked down the “Defund the Police” slogan.
Biden’s leaked commentary is the latest in a heated battle between centrist moderate establishment Democrats and their far left progressive counterparts.
In another leaked audio from a caucus phone conference after the election, Democratic leaders berated those members who used far left rhetoric for feeding into the narratives created by the right to defeat Democrats in moderate districts.
Despite polling predictions that Democrats would significantly increase their power in the U.S. House of Representatives and a systemic scheduling advantage in the 2020 election, Democrats suffered significant losses that had many questioning their leadership.
Here’s a report about Biden’s leaked audio:
