Happy Wednesday, Show Mo Facts supporters! In today’s blog post, we’ll evaluate and fact-check an ad posted on Twitter by the current Missouri Attorney General, Eric Schmitt. Schmitt is Missouri’s Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate and is up against Trudy Busch Valentine in the general election happening on November 8th.
In Schmitt’s new ad, he specifically targets his opponent, Trudy Busch Valentine, for her alleged support of defunding the police and her support of St. Louis Mayor, Tishaura O. Jones, and Cori Bush, Congresswoman from Missouri's First Congressional District.
Claim: “Trudy Busch Valentine supports their [Tishaura O. Jones, and Cori Bush] anti-cop agenda.”
Fact: Trudy Busch Valentine said in an interview, which she posted to her personal Twitter on October 25th, 2022, that she is NOT for defunding the police (video below). She continued on to say she believes that funding for the police should be increased, in order to provide them with better wages, more education, and community awareness and outreach.
At the start of the ad, there is a clip from St. Louis Mayor, Tishaura O. Jones, saying that “defunding the police has to happen”. While we were unable to find the source of this clip, it is true that Mayor Jones has defunded the St. Louis Police. St. Louis Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed accused Mayor Jones of defunding the city’s police department by millions of dollars. Reed said the mayor ended the contract with the federal government to house federal prisoners in the Workhouse and downtown jail, (Fox 2 News) which in turn lowered the budget by $8 million. However, in Jones’ campaign plan she ran on closing this Workhouse, meaning voters were aware of this possibility. From her website: “As mayor, I will close the Workhouse.”
While Mayor Jones has lowered the police budget in St. Louis, she has also increased funds for public safety. According to her campaign plan, she wants to “Put the public back in public safety” which she plans to do by investing in resources that will actually make the city and residents safer, such as treatment for substance abuse and mental health disorders. Programs that help lift people out of poverty and more meaningful criminal justice reforms. Jones’ website also states, “ Defunding the police does not mean abolishing the police. Instead, it means restructuring the department and reallocating the budget to programs and resources that actually prevent crime, like investments in substance abuse and mental health services, job training programs, and being a better partner with our education system.”
Additionally, this July, Jones signed Board Bill 65 into effect. This bill is a public safety bill, which established the Office of Violence Prevention and dedicates nearly $13.6 million to community violence prevention and youth programs. Mayor Jones has defunded the police, but that money is going into more programs to help benefit St. Louis and into other branches of the police force, such as dispatchers and police education. Finally, since Major Jones took office murder rates in Saint Louis city have fallen, and are projected to fall even more for the rest of 2022. (nextSTL)
Overall, we’d rate this ad as EXTREME on our Pants on Fire O-Meter. Schmitt clearly takes clips out of context in order to help his narrative. Valentine did say she supports Mayor Jones and wants to help her, but she did not say that specifically about defunding the police which Schmitt’s ad tries to make it seem like. Schmitt’s ad clearly frames it as if Mayor Jones and Valentine are against police, which Valentine stated is not true. What Schmitt or his team has done, is contextomy, which is a popular political tactic, of taking your opponent's words out of context in order to benefit your narrative or campaign.
Thank you for reading Show Mo Facts! Be sure to follow us on Twitter as well as like and comment on this post. Also, send us any ads that you see and would like us to cover through our Contact page. If you’d like to check out another blog from our class, we recommend Gateway To Facts. They are fact-checking the MO DNC. Find them here!
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