{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=27BDC8E8-B112-4D7C-B884-35B5D7F2487D", "Democrats Promote Soft-on-Crime Prosecutors as Murders Surge", "2021-12-08", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding crime rates:\n\n\u201cThe national murder rate just recorded its biggest jump in more than a century. In some cities, homicides have set all-time records.\n\n\u201cFrom Albuquerque to Milwaukee to Memphis to Des Moines, city officials reported more murders last year than in any prior year.\n\n\u201cIn my hometown of Louisville, homicides this year have now broken last year\u2019s all-time record.\n\n\u201cAll last year, liberal politicians and activists made absurd and false claims about law enforcement. \u2018We need to completely dismantle\u2019 local police. \u2018Policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist.\u2019\n\n\u201cA left-wing messaging campaign has spent a year and a half trying to chill law enforcement and policing. A network of liberal district attorneys around the country are matching that rhetoric with incredibly soft-on-crime practices behind the scenes. And the predictable result of all this has been a collapse in public safety.\n\n\u201cLast month, a man killed six people and injured dozens more at a Christmas market in Wisconsin, just weeks after he was released on bail for another set of violent charges.\n\n\u201cThis criminal had already been arrested and locked up in neighboring Milwaukee County, but he was let out by a liberal D.A. who remarked several years ago that, \u2018Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into treatment program, who\u2019s going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It\u2019s guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach.\u2019\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s now a whole bunch of grieving families in Waukesha who have strong feelings about that \u2018approach.\u2019\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s a headline from New York City, just this week. \u2018Man busted for assault set free, allegedly beats two random NYC women \u2013 then cut loose again.\u2019\n\n\u201cSmash-and-grabs, flash mob thefts, and carjackings are increasingly facts of life in multiple major cities.\n\n\u201cBut against this backdrop, Democrats just want to keep getting weaker on crime and softer on public safety.\n\n\u201cWe expect to vote today on the nomination of Rachel Rollins to be a U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts.\n\n\u201cMs. Rollins has spent years in her current job as a D.A. pushing the idea that the state should wipe entire categories of crimes off the list of things worth prosecuting. She\u2019d rather her office not go after trespassers, shoplifters, or even those found possessing drugs with the intent to distribute.\n\n\u201cThis soft-on-crime advocacy should have earned the nominee a pink slip. Instead, President Biden\u2019s giving her a promotion.\n\n\u201cI urge Senators to vote no.\n\n\u201cLaw-abiding Americans don\u2019t want prosecutors who refuse to prosecute.\n\n\u201cThey don\u2019t want city jails equipped with revolving doors. They need leaders who defend the rule of law.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "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.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=27BDC8E8-B112-4D7C-B884-35B5D7F2487D"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.395051997154951, "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"}