WATCH: Psaki’s Dodge When Pressed About Rising Crime Rates Across Country | Eastern North Carolina Now

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    White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dodged addressing reasons why crime has been seemingly skyrocketing in cities across the U.S. during a press conference on Monday.

    "Do you think it's possible that these cities are dealing with these smash and grab robberies right now, an increase in criminal activity, because some prosecutors are too soft on crime?" Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked.

    "I would say we have seen, I'm not going to attribute the reasoning from here, what I will tell you is we have seen an increase in crime over the course of the pandemic. There are a range of reasons for that," she claimed. "And what our focus is on is what we can do to address it. The President has proposed additional funding in the budget to make sure local police departments and cops have the funding they need. We have also worked directly with police departments in areas where they are seeing the highest impact of the crime, the retail theft, which we have great concern about. That's what our focus is on currently, is action, and doing what we can to make sure the funding is out there to the communities that need it the most."

    "What good does it do if you're going to give police departments extra money, if they arrest bad guys, and they bring them to jail, and then they're not prosecuted?" Doocy pressed. "They're just right back out on the streets."

    "What our focus is on is making sure that the local leaders, the police officers and departments who know what they need for these communities have the assistance and the funding they need," Psaki responded. "And that's what we're working around the clock on."

    Psaki later refused to address more specific instances of crime, like someone torching Fox News' Christmas tree last week in New York City.

    WATCH:

   

    TRANSCRIPT:

    PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS REPORTER: Okay. Another topic, is Vice President Harris still in charge of addressing the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala?

    JEN PSAKI, PRESS SECRETARY: She is and I just announced a commitment that she's announcing this afternoon.

    DOOCY: So, then why is it that she has not spoken to the President of Guatemala since June, six months?

    PSAKI: I know that, I did see this kind of strange report from the President of Guatemala saying that he's had no contact with the White House, which is inaccurate.

    DOOCY: He said, Vice President Harris, he has not spoken to her and she's in charge, why? Why is that?

    PSAKI: Well, we have had a range of conversations, Peter, I think, as reflected in our readout we put out last week with our national security adviser with the Vice President's National Security Adviser with our NSSC senior director, Juan Gonzalez. We put out an extensive readout of that just last week, and we'll continue that high level of engagement.

    DOOCY: Okay, final topic. Do you think it's possible that these cities are dealing with these smash and grab robberies right now, an increase in criminal activity, because some prosecutors are too soft on crime?

    PSAKI: I would say we have seen, I'm not going to attribute the reasoning from here, what I will tell you is we have seen an increase in crime over the course of the pandemic. There are a range of reasons for that. And what our focus is on is what we can do to address it. The President has proposed additional funding in the budget to make sure local police departments and cops have the funding they need. We have also worked directly with police departments in areas where they are seeing the highest impact of the crime, the retail theft, which we have great concern about. That's what our focus is on currently, is action, and doing what we can to make sure the funding is out there to the communities that need it the most.

    DOOCY: But I guess what good does it do if you're going to give police departments extra money, if they arrest bad guys, and they bring them to jail, and then they're not prosecuted? They're just right back out on the streets.

    PSAKI: I think Peter, what our focus is on is making sure that the local leaders, the police officers and departments who know what they need for these communities have the assistance and the funding they need. And that's what we're working around the clock on.

    DOOCY: So the final one would be just in the last week, we saw a New York Post item about a pickpocket with more than 30 arrests back out on the street. We've seen an arsonist burn down a half a million dollar Christmas tree in New York City back out on the streets. Does the President thing that that's good governing?

    PSAKI: Again, I think I've spoken to the President's concerns about retail theft. If you have specific, and the actions we've taken for specific cases, I would point to the local police departments.

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