The Republicans have been searching frantically for a new issue. Obviously, “the border,” is their signature issue, despite the fact that the Border Patrol is catching more people than ever. Also, the GOP doesn’t distinguish legitimate asylum-seekers who hand themselves over to border officials for a hearing.

So, yes, count the border, but with gas prices now plummeting – which has almost nothing to do with Biden, and inflation at least “halted,” a lot of their economic whines are coming up short.

Crime! That’s it! Democrats are soft on crime. They have to be. Democrats get upset when unarmed black men are gunned down in their cars. Soft on Crime! Back the Blue! Unless Trump says not to!

Peter Doocy did what he could do today by asking Karine Jean-Pierre if  Biden thinks big cities are safe or not. It is a peculiar question, given that very few Republicans live in big cities. One will find more at the Lake of the Ozarks or in a Florida boat parade than in Manhattan, LA, or Houston.

Karine simply wasn’t having it today. KJP doesn’t have the je ne sais quoi of one Jen Psaki, but then, who does? What KJP does have is every bit as much brainpower as Psaki, but KJP delivers her blows with such subtlety that Peter probably doesn’t realize, even now, hours later, that he got curb-stomped.

From Mediaite:

“Does President Biden think America’s biggest cities are safe?” Doocy asked point blank.

Jean-Pierre asked Doocy to elaborate, and the two ended up discussing a New York Times report on national crime rates.

The report shows a drop in the murder rate in 2022, though the murder rate is still 30 percent above its level from 2019.

Doocey continued to throw out stats, none of which apply to Biden and are far more regional in the root of the problem. KJP stopped him in his tracks:

This is a president who has secured historic funding to make sure law enforcement has what it needs, and he was able to do this in the face of opposition from Republicans,” Jean-Pierre said. She referred to the American Rescue Plan, arguing that it provided over $300 billion to help cities bolster law enforcement.

That $300 billion is noteworthy. Even nowadays, that’s still a pretty big chunk of money.

But we were off track. Doocy went back to his original question; Does the President believe that big cities are safe?

Bring Peter into KJP’s operating room, please:

“It is not a yes or no question,” Jean-Pierre replied. “It is very much a question of what has he done…to make sure that cities — and it doesn’t matter if its a big city or a small city…What matters is that we have the funding and we have done the work, put the policy forward, to make sure these cities, big or small, have what they need to protect their community, and that’s what this president has done.”

Whereas Psaki was like the bullfighter, waving a red cape, expertly inserting blades until it was time, KJP delivers just enough anesthesia to lull poor Peter into a light sleep, getting out her scalpel and expertly carving “KJP’d” into his forehead. It’ll be this evening, when Peter’s new bride asks him what happened to his head, that it occurs to him that he did, in fact, get KJP’d. He just wasn’t smart enough to realize it as it was happening.

Doocy: "Does President Biden think America’s big cities are safe?"

Karine Jean-Pierre: "It’s not a yes or no question" pic.twitter.com/8GBlImkQm3

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 26, 2022

****

[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman