He talked to reporters on Wednesday before boarding Air Force One to fly to California, stumbling on the steps as he did so.
He left after two closely watched votes in California revealed how voters prioritized increasing crime - in San Francisco, where the city’s liberal district attorney was recalled, and in Los Angeles, where a tough-on-crime Republican finished before a Progressive Democrat in the race to be mayor.
“The voters sent a clear message last night,” stated Biden.
“Both parties have to step up and do something about crime and gun violence.”
He continued that states and cities must hire more officers and reform police departments.
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“The first major bill we passed ... we gave the states and localities billions of dollars, billions of dollars and then encouraged them to use it to hire police officers and reform the police department,” he stated.
“Very few have done it.”
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The outcomes challenge Biden’s party, which has focused on criminal justice reform in recent years.
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The President continued that he had sent Congress a request for $300 million in the budget to hire and train officers.
“It’s time they move. It’s time states and the localities spend the money they have to deal with crime, as well as retrain police officers, as well as provide for more community policing,” he announced.
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The country again considers how to prevent mass shootings after 19 children and two teachers were killed at a school in Uvalde, Texas.
A University of Berkeley survey in April discovered that crime and lawlessness were now voters’ number one concern in California, putting the matter ahead of race relations, healthcare, and the pandemic.
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In San Francisco, that meant the removal of DA Chesa Boudin, who was blamed for being soft on crime.
“The right-wing billionaires outspent us three to one,” he announced in a defiant address to followers after news of the recall results, which saw over 60 percent of San Franciscans vote to recall him.
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Boudin, 41, asserted that citizens had been “exploited" by these groups, stating they “took advantage of an environment in which people are appropriately upset.”
“They created an electoral dynamic where we were literally shadowboxing,” Boudin, who narrowly won office in November 2019 as part of a wave of woke prosecutors who pledged to seek alternatives to incarceration, stated.
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