Biden says yes, it was 'a mistake' to support 1994 crime bill

During Thursday night's ABC News town hall with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, a Republican voter asked the former vice president about the 1994 crime bill he supported, and what he thinks about it now.

"Things have changed drastically," Biden responded. "That crime bill, when we voted, the black caucus voted for it, every black mayor supported it across the board." Moderator George Stephanopoulos asked Biden if it was a mistake to back the bill, and he said "yes, it was," adding, "the mistake came in terms of what the states did locally. What we did federally, we said it was — you remember, George, it was all about the same time for the same crime."

Stephanopoulos mentioned that Biden previously said if there are more police officers, crime goes down. Biden said this works if the police officers are involved in "community policing and not jump squads. We had community policing from the mid-'90s on until [former President George W.] Bush got elected, what happened? Violent crime actually went down."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Biden said if there are calls where mental health is an issue, psychologists should accompany police officers, and cops must also receive de-escalation training. "So instead of anybody coming at you and the first thing you do is shoot to kill, you shoot them in the leg," he said.