The View hosts clash over Republicans trying to scare people over crime while shrugging off gun violence

The co-hosts of The View clashed on Wednesday after debates where Republican candidates cherrypicked crime statistics and blamed Democrats for them.

In the Michigan and New York gubernatorial debates, both Republican candidates Lee Zeldin and Tudor Dixon blamed Democrats for the increase in crime. In Michigan, the two clashed over school shootings, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said necessitated regulations on guns. Dixon cited other ways in dealing with the problem like security guards.

“There was a school shooting in Missouri yesterday, in a district that had exactly what she just described,” Whitmer said. “And people are dead.”

"You can either work on keeping people scared or you can focus on keeping them safe," said Gov. Kathy Hochul (NY). "There is no crime-fighting plan if it doesn't include guns, illegal guns and you refuse to talk about how we can do so much more."

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Whoopi Goldberg said that Zeldin is ignoring crime statistics in urban areas when murder rates have soared in red states.

"Third Way found that 8 of the 10 states with the highest per capita murder rates were voted Republican in every presidential election," she said. "Now crime is rough everywhere. It's happening everywhere, and what I wanted from Lee Zeldin -- I wanted the plan. I know what Kathy Hochul's been trying to do. I know how she's working. Sometimes she can get it together and sometimes it doesn't go the way I want it to, but I wanted to hear him say something other than, 'you are not -- you, you, you.' What is your plan, Lee Zeldin? We know people are getting stabbed. He know what's happening. We know what's going on. What do you plan to do? she at least has a plan."

Sunny Hostin, who was a former federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, lamented that too often the crime statistics are self-reported by police departments, so they're only going to be numbers that flatter them. Meanwhile, "he voted against the ban on semiautomatic weapons...And homicides are up, and I think most people, having been a prosecutor, know this. They care about violent crimes. They don't care about broken window crimes. They really don't care about that as much. They care about violent crimes."

The top 10 violent crime states are states that supported Donald Trump in 2020.

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Republican Alyssa Farah Griffin said that she no longer feels safe in New York City, whereas Joy Behar said that after living there for decades she thinks the city is far safer than it was in the 1970s and 1980s.

"I'm not settling, but don't exaggerate the situation," said Behar.

Griffin said that the Senate Republicans have a "plan," which they announced at the end of September, highlighting "cities" with crime. The bill is essentially hiring more police. There is already an officer shortage with the number of law enforcement reaching record lows in Wisconsin alone. The funding is there, the problem is that people either don't want to risk their lives for lower pay or applicants can't pass the psychological exam, drug tests, and background tests. After failing psych exams, there were 47 Alameda County deputy sheriffs who ended up under investigation. In Austin, Texas, there's even a shortage of staff to handle emergency calls.

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