The numbers don't lie. Or do they? Since the debate on Tuesday night, there's been a side-show hubbub over Kamala Harris's David Muir's debate assertion that crime rates have gone down in the country and Donald Trump's retort that the FBI stats have been rigged.
Here's how it went for those of you who knew it was going to be a three-on-one verbal curb-stomping of Trump and didn't watch. Note how many times Trump nails it, how Muir biffs it, and how Kamala doesn't answer it.
Muir asked Trump about deporting illegal aliens and Trump pivoted to crime because there's a connection. We join midway through Trump's initial response.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down? You know why? Because they've taken their criminals off the street and they've given them to her to put into our country.
And this will be one of the greatest mistakes in history for them to allow -- and I think they probably did it because they think they're going to get votes. But it's not worth it. Because they're destroying the fabric of our country by what they've done.
There's never been anything done like this at all. They've destroyed the fabric of our country. Millions of people let in. And all over the world crime is down. All over the world except here.
Crime here is up and through the roof. Despite their fraudulent statements that they made. Crime in this country is through the roof. And we have a new form of crime. It's called migrant crime. And it's happening at levels that nobody thought possible.
DAVID MUIR: President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country, but Vice President the...
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: [exc]use me, the FBI -- they were defrauding statements. They didn't include the worst cities. They didn't include the cities with the worst crime. It was a fraud. Just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud.
DAVID MUIR: President Trump, thank you. I'll let you respond, Vice President Harris.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, I think this is so rich. Coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing.
And let's be clear where each person stands on the issue of what is important about respect for the rule of law and respect for law enforcement.
The former vice president [sic] called for defunding, federal law enforcement, 45,000 agents, get this, on the day after he was arraigned on 34 felony counts.
So let's talk about what is important in this race. It is important that we move forward, that we turn the page on this same old tired rhetoric. And address the needs of the American people, address what we need to do about the housing shortage, which I have a plan for. Address what we must do to support our small businesses. Address bringing down the price of groceries. But frankly, the American people are exhausted with the same old tired playbook.
DAVID MUIR: Vice President Harris, thank you, your majesty.
Trump's right, and you can get up to speed on the issue by watching my Adult in the Room Podcast discussion with the Crime Prevention Research Center's John Lott below.
Related: So Kamala Has a Gun, Does She?
There's more nuance in this assertion, however.
Since David Muir's and Kamala's sorority sister's debate against Donald Trump on Tuesday, their inaccurate fact check on crime stats will go down as one of the dumber moments.
— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) September 13, 2024
On a recent Adult in the Room Podcast I talked to #JohnLott of the @CrimeResearch1 about the FBI crime… pic.twitter.com/fdL4qkg9gF
The FBI doesn't "rig" the stats per se, says Lott. Trump's right that large cities with the worst crime stats aren't reporting their whopping crime rates. Lott tells me that it's true they don't report, but the FBI has filler stats, if you will, that it includes on these cities behalf to guesstimate the crime rates. It's not ideal. It's not accurate. Indeed, the rates are skewed.
That's bad enough but what is probably worse is that Americans in these high-crime cities have stopped reporting crimes. "We've known only about 42% of violent crimes [that] are reported," he told me.
Lott notes that "only 32% of property crimes are reported to police."
But that's not all we know.
"For the last 50 years, we've had something called the National Crime Victimization Survey which surveys a whopping 240,000 people each year to try to get information on what happens to total crime reported and unreported," he told the Adult in the Room Podcast.
Related: Who Rigged the Debate for Kamala? Her Best Friend and Her Sorority Sister
"And what you find since 2020," Lott explains, "this measure of total crime and the FBI's measure of reported crime have gone in opposite directions."
Trump took to Truth Social to give America the bad news about how bad crime really is.
Americans aren't reporting a huge swath of crime because they know that politicians have defunded the cops and there aren't enough to go around. What's the point of reporting it, they reason, if no one will do anything about it?
And that sadly apathetic — and wholly understandable — attitude is a crime against law-abiding people. Woke politicians who think nothing of letting in illegal aliens to swarm small cities, or they ignore quality-of-life crimes should be punished by voters but maybe they can be punished in another way. Ignoring the law and their oaths to serve, protect, defend, and honor the Constitution should be a punishable offense. I'll take that up next time.
At PJ Media, we have fun but we are as serious as those crime statistics up there when it comes to bringing you the truth. Our country has been in free fall. You can stay informed by reading PJ Media, of course, but we need your help.
Kamala and Joe have been censoring our voice for years now. They've worked with social media companies to shut us up. Please consider becoming a VIP Member to keep us afloat as we keep fighting the Censorship Industrial Complex. Use the code SAVEAMERICA to get 50% off. Join the fight. Click here to get started. Thank you.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member