Team Biden, you can’t blame looting gangs on COVID and Trump — look in the mirror
The Biden administration just keeps blaming former President Donald Trump for the nationwide rise in crime It’s all Donald Trump’s fault. Or COVID. Whatever the issue, count on Team Biden to shift the blame to the pandemic — or the president’s predecessor.
That’s precisely what happened Thursday when White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki — in an incredible stretch, even for her — claimed COVID-19 was a “root cause” of the outbreak of smash-and-grab attacks plaguing the country.
“When a huge group of criminals organizes themselves, and they want to go loot a store, CVS and Nordstrom, a Home Depot, until the shelves are clean, you think that’s because of the pandemic?” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy.
“I think a root cause in a lot of communities is the pandemic. Yes,” replied Psaki.
Then again, Biden himself has pointed to the coronavirus as a source of rising crime, but no one seriously believes that.
“This has nothing to do with the pandemic,” a former law-enforcement official and security consultant, Pete Eliadis, says. “The pandemic is overused at this point.” We’ll say!
But Psaki didn’t stop there. She also suggested Big Bad President Donald Trump failed to allot enough federal money for local cops, while Biden, by contrast, upped the aid.
Hello? Local crime is supposed to be dealt with by local communities using local funds. The smash-and-grabs are no more Trump’s fault (or COVID’s) than is the nationwide surge in murders.
The truth? Psaki and Biden are trying to cover for disastrous policies pushed by progressives in the nation’s Democratic-run cities — and by the president himself.
Blue states have removed consequences for crime, via measures like bail reform, lower penalties, higher thresholds for felonies and assorted legal handcuffs on cops. Woke prosecutors refuse to investigate crimes and charge criminals. Judges offer convicts lenient sentences or set them free altogether.
In 2014, California’s voters passed Proposition 47, which changed crimes like shoplifting and grand theft from felonies to misdemeanors. Raiding a store for goods valued at less than $950 became just a misdemeanor.
Meanwhile, prosecutors, like San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin, have signaled that they’ll all but close their eyes to low-level violations and perhaps even to some serious crimes.
Notably, Los Angeles and San Francisco along with some of its suburbs have suffered devastating attacks on retail outlets. A mob of 18 looters broke into a Nordstrom in LA last week. In Walnut Creek, near San Francisco, 80-strong stormed a Nordstrom in November, while another group hit ’Frisco’s Union Square, targeting 10 stores there. Stores in the Golden State are now closing by the dozen for fear of robbery.
New York City, too, has gone soft on crime in recent years and (surprise!) also seen shoplifting soar: By September, there were more such cases here up to that point than in 26 years. (Last year, murders here were also up more than 40 percent.)
Biden, Psaki & Co. have used the Trump and/or COVID excuse for other messes they’ve created — at the border, with the economy — and you can bet they will again. But you’d think at some point they’d realize Americans can simply no longer take them seriously.
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Psaki claims COVID is ‘root cause’ for wave of looting incidents
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki contends that the pandemic is the “root cause” of the surge in smash-and-grab robberies. Psaki first blamed former President Trump on the string of crimes White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday said the COVID-19 pandemic is “a root cause” of recent organized looting incidents across the country.
Psaki gave the surprising remark when asked at her daily briefing about large groups that have for weeks been descending upon San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago-area shops.
“Big cities are dealing with smash-and-grab robberies, a record number of police officers have been shot and killed this year. What is President Biden going to do about all this lawlessness?” asked Fox News reporter Peter Doocy.
Psaki at first pinned the blame on former President Donald Trump for not offering more funding to local police before turning the blame on the pandemic.
“Well, Peter, I would say that when the president proposed additional funding in his budget over the funding that had been proposed by the prior president to increase in support local police departments, make sure we keep cops on the beat,” she said.
“Does the president still think that crime is up because of the pandemic?” Doocy further asked.
“I think many people have conveyed that and also one of the … root causes of crime in communities is guns and gun violence. And we’ve seen that statistically around the country,” Psaki answered.
“So when a huge group of criminals organizes themselves and they want to go loot a store — a CVS, a Nordstrom, a Home Depot until the shelves are clean — do you think that’s because of the pandemic?” Doocy pressed.
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy had asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki if she thought the pandemic was fueling crime “I think a root cause in a lot of communities is the pandemic, yes,” Psaki said.
The recent incidents featured groups converging on shops and making off like bandits — recalling widespread looting in May and June 2020 during nationwide protests and riots after the murder of George Floyd.
Unlike last year, the latest incidents generally aren’t linked to broader civil unrest and appear to be organized operations with theft as the sole goal.
Nearly two weeks ago, about 80 people on Nov. 21 raided a San Francisco-area Nordstrom department store. They drove off in two dozen cars with up to $200,000 in goods, police said.
The stunning incident was repeated in other cities.
A band of about 20 thieves stormed into a Los Angeles Nordstrom on Nov. 22 and stole $5,000 worth of items. On Nov. 24, five people maced a security guard at a different LA Nordstrom location and stole $25,000 in handbags.
There have been a string of robberies that have not been related to social unrest or protests this year
Also on Nov. 24, a group of four looted an Apple store in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco, and stole $20,000 worth of electronics in broad daylight. On Nov. 26, a Black Friday group of about 10 people raided a Los Angeles Home Depot and stole hammers, sledgehammers and crowbars.
In Chicago, 14 suspects looted a Louis Vuitton luxury shop on Nov. 17 and carried off $120,000 in merchandise. On Nov. 19, a group emerged from two or three cars to storm a Neiman Marcus in Chicago.
Some Democratic politicians blamed past looting on COVID-19-related financial woes. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx and Queens) famously said in July 2020 that a crime wave was caused by people who “need to feed their child and they don’t have money.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has previously said that robberies are committed by people who are trying to feed their children 
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