{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/watch-hawley-grills-former-biden-advisor-over-defund-the-police-advocacy-and-gender-lunacy/", "WATCH: Hawley Grills Former Biden Advisor Over Defund the Police Advocacy and Gender Lunacy", "2025-09-30", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "This morning, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned Gregory Jackson, Jr.\u2014former President Joe Biden\u2019s Deputy Director of Gun Violence Prevention\u2014for advocating to defund the police and invest in \u201csafe-spaces\u201d for \u201ctwo-spirit\u201d individuals.\n\n\u201cMr. Jackson, Do you renounce the report that you authored as executive director?\u201d Senator Hawley asked. \u201cThis is your report, \u2018A Policymaker\u2019s Playbook To Reduce Gun Violence Without Policing Communities\u2019 Community Justice Action Fund, copyright 2023, when you were executive director. Now you say you don\u2019t know anything about it\u2026 just like the Democrats who all of a sudden say, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re all for the police.\u2019 They\u2019ve been advocating defunding them for years,\u201d Senator Hawley said.\n\nGregory Jackson replied, \u201cYou\u2019ve never seen me advocate for that directly. What you\u2019ve see me advocate for is a comprehensive approach to reducing violence and we\u2019ve recognized that law enforcement is a part of the ecosystem the entire time.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is so typical of what the Democrats do now. After your policies have transparently failed\u2026 now, you say you\u2019ve never heard of defunding the police.\u201d Senator Hawley responded, \u201cLet me ask about something else you say\u2026 \u2018Instead of funding the police, here\u2019s what we ought to invest in. We need to invest in programs that acknowledge the need for safe-space initiatives led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, trans and gender non-conforming people.\u2019 What\u2019s two-spirit?\u201d\n\nGregory Jackson replied, \u201cWell, look I don\u2019t know exactly. You guys are pulling some interesting quotes here.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley concluded, \u201cThe answer is, you don\u2019t have any solutions. You want to invest in gobbledygook and take away money from police officers who actually keep our community safe and when you\u2019re called on the record, you deny it. It\u2019s all there in black and white\u2026 you are leading this committee astray and frankly, sir, your policies are absurd.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/watch-hawley-grills-former-biden-advisor-over-defund-the-police-advocacy-and-gender-lunacy/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.720908097922802, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}