Mike Johnson Faces Backlash for Plan to 'Defund the Police'

House Speaker Mike Johnson is being accused by some Democrats of wanting to "defund the police" as part of conservatives' intentions to cut budgets for multiple federal agencies.

Reducing law enforcement budgets became a popular Democratic talking point in the wake of George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minnesota police in May 2020, leading to some party members pushing the mantra for nearly an entire election cycle even though most Americans opposed such policy reforms. Sixty-three percent of Americans described the U.S. crime problem as "either extremely or very serious" in a November poll from Gallup, up from 54 percent when it was previously measured in 2021.

Johnson, a close ally of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, touted his conference's intentions on Wednesday to differentiate from policies enacted and proposed by President Joe Biden and Democrats. He contrasted the visions of both main political parties, blaming the Biden administration's policies for getting America into its current "trench."

He also said that some federal agencies have "overreached...and in some ways turned against the American people."

Plans include cutting 3 percent from the Department of Justice's budget; 7 percent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; 6 percent from the FBI; and 10 percent from the Environmental Protection Agency.

He said that's "just a start."

"We have a lot more priorities and things that we need to advance, but the reality is, as we all recognize, that we have to grow the House majority, take back the Senate for the Republican Party, and win the White House," Johnson said. "I'm here to tell you the reason we're optimistic is we believe those things are going to happen in November, and we can't wait—they can't get here soon enough."

Newsweek reached out to Johnson and the aforementioned federal agencies via email for comment.

Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, told Newsweek that the "defund the police" movement is premised on the idea of taking money from law enforcement budgets and reinvesting it in community-based public safety alternatives.

"Speaker Johnson is only doing the divesting part without any plan to use the cost savings in a generative way, so I would not say his efforts can be accurately compared to defunding the police," Bonds said.

"However, for opponents of defunding the police, Speaker Johnson's statements are echoing what they would view as the most harmful component of defunding the police, which is to reduce the size and capacity of law enforcement agencies. These cuts seem more based on a budget calculation than communicating a political message about over-policing," she said.

House Republicans currently hold a very slim majority, 219 to 213, following the recent resignations of Representatives Bill Johnson of Ohio, and Kevin McCarthy of California. Johnson replaced McCarthy last fall.

The GOP also lost Representative George Santos, the embattled now-former congressman who was removed from office due to a litany of legal issues. He was recently replaced by Democrat Tom Suozzi, who in February won a special election to represent New York's 3rd Congressional District.

"We did get conservative policy wins here," Johnson later told Fox News about his conference's efforts. "We got cuts to the agencies, some of them that are the worst offenders in going after the people they're supposed to protect and serve. There's a lot to champion here."

Some Democrats have taken Johnson's new remarks as a new Republican version of defunding the police.

"Cut law enforcement and environmental protection," wrote MeidasTouch founder Ron Filipkowski on X, formerly Twitter. "Sounds like a winning formula heading into the elections!"

"[Johnson] frames funding cuts for law enforcement as being pro-American instead of as pro-Trump," wrote the account The Intellectualist.

Mondaire Jones, a Democratic congressional candidate trying to oust incumbent Republican Representative Mike Lawler in New York's 17th Congressional District, used the speaker's words against his opponent.

"Shameful if @lawler4ny votes, yet again in his brief tenure, to cut law enforcement funding," Jones wrote on X.

Steve Benen, producer for The Rachel Maddow Show and an MSNBC political contributor, wrote on the MaddowBlog that the cuts proposed by Johnson and the GOP are not as drastic as they make it out to be—pointing to few retorts from Democrats due to the cuts being near abysmal.

Benen maligned Republicans for going after law enforcement budgets, however, due to how the GOP has made IRS funding a pivotal part of their election messaging in the past year and change.

"The speaker didn't grudgingly point to these cuts as necessary budgetary moves in an era of belt-tightening; rather he touted these cuts as justified political punishments for agencies that Republicans are mad at," Benen said.

"Or put another way, the party that grew hysterical in response to 'defund the police' rhetoric is now trying to score political points by rolling back funds for law enforcement."

Update 3/8/24, 8:10 a.m. ET: This story was updated with a comment from Lauren Bonds.