Dukakis warns Democrats not to be too soft on crime, calls 'defund the police' movement 'nuts'

Former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis is urging his party to drop the so-called "defund the police" movement and to not make the same mistake he did in being too soft on crime when he ran for presidency in 1988.

Dukakis told The Hill in an interview published Monday that the "defund the police" movement is "nuts."

"I’m saying to myself, my God, what the hell is going on here?" Dukakis said during the interview, which was conducted last week.

"On one hand, you have folks screaming and yelling about getting rid of policing, which makes no sense at all. And then, on the other hand, you have some people totally misinterpreting what community policing is, just as we were really making huge progress," Dukakis also said.

The 87-year-old's comments come during a recent spike in crime. In 2020, New York City had a 45% increase in murders. Atlanta and Miami had their murder rates increase, respectively, in 2020 by 50% and 30%.

The defund effort was largely sparked by the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by then-Minneapolis officer Dereck Chauvin and the subsequent protests against police brutality.

Dukakis argued that defunding the police is the wrong move, saying, "you need active police presence, but led by police officers who are well trained and who understand how you work effectively and constructively and appropriately with communities."

"We were headed in that direction until all of this stuff, and here we are now," he said.

Dukakis ran as the Democratic nominee in 1988 against then-Vice President George H. W. Bush.

Dukakis was criticized by Republicans as soft on crime after he said he would not push for the death penalty after receiving a hypothetical question about whether he would if a criminal had murdered his wife.