‘I Just Need A Yes Or A No’: Joe Scarborough Does Not Let Dem Mayor Off The Hook As He Ducks Question On Policing

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough continuously pressed Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday as he attempted to dodge a question about policing making communities safer.

While advocating for social programs to bring down crime, Johnson did not want to answer Scarborough’s question on whether he would support more federal funding for adding 5,000 additional officers on the streets of Chicago. The mayor’s discussion about crime came as President Donald Trump has floated the idea of a federal crackdown in Johnson’s city to combat violent crime.

“I’m curious, would you also like to get federal funding to help put 5,000 more cops on the street in Chicago, would that help drive down crime?” Scarborough asked.

When Johnson said policing itself is not the “full strategy,” Scarborough said, “No, I understand that. You’ve talked about the other things you want, and I said those are good and important programs, but I’m asking also, would 5,000 more police officers on the street in Chicago be helpful to go along with all of those social programs that a lot of cities are engaging in and having success with?”

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While Scarborough continued to press the mayor, Johnson said Chicago would be safer with more federal funding going toward  “affordable housing” and other mental health services.

“I believe that the city of Chicago and cities across America would be safer if we actually had affordable housing,” Johnson said.

“Okay, but that’s not the question I asked,” Scarborough immediately interrupted. “My question is, and I just need a yes or a no. Do you believe the streets of Chicago would be safer, if you got all of those extraordinary programs put back into place, which do have a history of being successful, if that’s complimented by having 5,000 more cops on the streets of Chicago?”

The Chicago mayor accused Scarborough of narrowing the crime problem down to policing, and said that “putting out an arbitrary number” of officers would not solve the problem.