what our leaders really need to do to stop it and keep us sai. i'm harris faulkner, you are in "the faulkner focus". america's crime crisis is our focus this hour. in california luxury shopping districts have becomes a looters' playground. dozens of people showing up some of them don't know each other, they meet on social media and they ransack store fronts, take hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, driving up the cost for the rest of us and imagine working in a place like that. you wonder why people don't jump for those jobs right now. so what happened in that particular place, the golden state? we'll go to los angeles where critics say soft on crime district attorney george gascon and his bail reform agenda have opened the floodgates for rampant crime and since he took office last year, homicides are up by 12%. compared to 2020. shooting incidents up by 18% and when there are shootings there are actually more victims in those shootings. so the numbers of victims also up by 14%. gascon is facing his second recall effort already. given those numbers, it is no big surprise that so many people want him gone and are also hitting governor gavin newsom in california for supporting his liberal policies originally. >> los angeles has had a complete lack of leadership on the issue of criminal justice. we have a district attorney who refuses to hold criminals accountable and we're seeing more brazen attacks. >> he should be ashamed of himself. this is the environment he has created and he is either ignorant of the actual statistics or a liar. >> los angeles is like the movie purge. instead of 24 hours to commit your crime they have 365 days. it is so violent. we're telling people don't visit. we don't think they can keep you safe now. >> harris: jamie mcbride, lapd sheriff. i want to go to jonathan hunt reporting live from los angeles in front of the beverly center mall. there is a reason why you are there. >> yeah, good morning, harris. from san francisco to los angeles, california has been dealing with this crime surge and behind me as you say is the beverly center mall, one of several that were targeted recently in this wave of smash and grab violent robberies that spread to almost every single neighborhood here in l.a. >> los angeles residents have been robbed and beaten on their door steps, robbed at gun point while synth at cafes. they've run from mobs during smash and grab robberies and they've seen hundreds shot and killed this year. >> we need a d.a. that will do his job. >> the l.a. county sheriff puts much of the blame at the door of the progressive district attorney george gascon. >> the policies has enabled the entire criminal community to realize we can get away with more stuff. >> not surprisingly the d.a. sees it differently. >> we have made incredible progress even in this unprecedented times. >> the figures from the los angeles police department and sheriffs office show robberies are in fact down on 2020 although they have surged in the last few weeks. assaults are up overall this year and homicides have shot up during the d.a.'s first year in office. >> to what do you and your policies bear any responsibilities? >> none. >> the d.a. says his approach will ultimately reduce crime. >> the reality is that punishment-based approach to the work does not serve us well. >> there seems little chance of the d.a. and sheriff find any common ground on how to fight crime in l.a. >> he is going to double down on stupid and keep doing what he is doing. >> my dad used to say that when you wrestle with a pig, you both get muddy and the pig likes it. >> after the d.a. made that pig reference, he quickly added that he did not mean to use the word in terms of law enforcement but that exchange, the pig analogy, the comment about doubling down on stupid is emblematic of the increasingly dysfunctional relationship between those whose job it is to arrest criminals and those whose job it is to prosecute them. >> harris: he is either terribly unimaginetive with his vocabulary or meant what he said and it is pretty offensive. jonathan hunt, thank you. california's political leaders are now under intense pressure to fix the problems right now. because as you know, when crime gets out of control, people are living afraid and they get fed up. >> there have been stabbings, robberies, everything you can think of. i have the police flying down my street with their lights on. it used to be a nice, quiet residential neighborhood not anymore. >> you have to watch your back in broad daylight. i groo*e grew up here and been here for 15 years it is sad actually. >> it is ridiculous that our mayor, garcetti, 150 million dollars he cuts the police budget. defunded them and it's insane. you know, at the mayor's mansion and a park he has got police and private security i'm sure up the ying yang and for the private citizen we're all suffering because of it. >> who or what is to blame for this recent spike in crime? >> everybody knows. one name, you know, i care not to say but, you know? no bail. >> who do you think is to blame? >> the district attorney, the mayor, and the governor. >> i think we do need a strong police presence so people are aware that if they commit a crime they can be caught and prosecuted. >> the problem is nobody gets punished from the crime. that's the biggest problem we have here. they know they can get away with it so they do it. >> harris: i love talking with people who are living through things actually. that's how you find out what's going on. so i thank our reporters for going out there and talking with people in california who don't live where the governor lives. jamie mcbride, l.a.p.d. director and director of the los angeles protective league is here and the fresno county district attorney is here, too. welcome both of you and thank you for this hour of your time. lisa, i want to talk with you. you do a similar job quite differently. what does gascon mean, the district attorney says punishment-based approach doesn't work. what does he want to do with criminals? yell and put them in time out? >> i think he should not be referred to as a district attorney. an impose tore district attorney. the district attorney should have the law enforcement official. he is a public defender in disguise. never tried a case or been in a courtroom. he is pushing an agenda of the people funding his campaign. and he is destroying the beautiful county of los angeles and he is actually a menace to public safety when he should be the person who is the strongest advocate for public safety. i don't understand his policies other than to say the people who are filling his coffers have a completely different agenda than keeping the people of los angeles safe. >> harris: quickly follow up. does he survive a second recall? >> you know, if the people in los angeles quite honestly don't wake up and engage they will. the first recall had some legs but people need to get motivated and sign those petitions and get him out of there. he is a danger. so i think they are more organized this time and i am very hopeful that he does get recalled because we need to send a message not only to george gascon but we need to send a message to george soros and the people who are funding the progressive prosecutors throughout the nation. it is not a coincidence where you have imposter d.a.s you have this insanity going on, this absolute chaos. >> harris: you are talking about the money flowing to those elected officials. jamie, i want to get to this. the daily mail with this headline. it speaks to what police officers are dealing with on the street. brazen crime, open drug use, a spike in homelessness and trashed streets is driving very tolerant san francisco residents to say enough amid the crime spike, the city's very liberal soro's backed district attorney will face a recall vote in june. it has gotten to bad that the san francisco's liberal democratic mayor said yesterday. >> what i am proposing today and the future will make a lot of people uncomfortable. and i don't care. we are past the point where what we see is even remotely acceptable. and it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies, and less tolerant of all the [bleep] that has destroyed our city. >> harris: detective i want to get your response and fill in the gaps of who she really is and what she really said and did. go ahead. >> well it is amazing what a year can do. a year ago you have san francisco and los angeles and oakland in california talking about defunding the police. we still have that experiment. we're down over 700 officers. i'm in san francisco monthly and talk to my counterparts up there and they're going through the same thing. crime is crazy. now they are scrambling and the thing about politicians is they don't want to admit when their policies are failures just like the mayors up there, the city council members and also our george gascon and the district attorney in san francisco. they don't want to admit their policies failed. that's what we're seeing. >> harris: let's roll back the way back machine and i like the way you said it. what a difference a year makes. this was july of 2020, mayor london breed, the same woman cussing and carrying on because crime is so bad and she has to fix it. she said she would eliminate or reallocate 120 million if funding to be redirected to address disparities in other communities. now a year later we have this. we have the reality of what that looks like. and when you turn back time, what does that mean? detective, we lost people you can't necessarily replace from the ranks. they aren't going to come back just because she decides to spend more money now. >> no. in fact, we are seeing it is harder and harder to recruit people. i had a friend who had 23 years on, five years away from collecting his pension and he retired. i'll wait five years to collect my pension and that's what we're seeing. when you have people like gascon and his policies last week at a press conference he said the criminal justice system failed. if that suspect would have had more programs available to him when he was arrested in his prior arrests this could have been avoided. that's delusional. is no type of programs that change evil people like the jeffrey daumers. people commit violent acts they need to be incarcerated. it is a merry-go-round in los angeles and san francisco. >> harris: you bring up the avant family. the music producer and musician just entered into the rock-n-roll hall of fame his 81-year-old wife is the one you are talking about. that was such a brazen crime and i ask you as a district attorney, lisa, what does that say about our legal system that we let people in and out of it so easily? that case we're all watching because everybody is caught on camera. it is not like you don't know who did what. >> quite honestly, harris, sadly for that family and that beautiful ladies these are sadly the cases that end up making a difference because when it happens to the average citizen people don't hear about it. these types of crimes are happening all over the place in these progressive districts and counties where this is happening. and quite honestly gavin newsom and jerry brown the previous governor and george gascon have created this culture. they are letting prisoners out, very dangerous prisoners after they passed proposition 57 and we have youthful offender parole that new some takes advantage of. when you continue to release dangerous prisoners, you close prisons when your crime is out of control, and you also have an attorney general who vowed his number one priority is prosecuting cops and not being the chief law enforcement official of the state of california, you create a culture where there is no accountability and no responsibility and the criminals are running the state. this is why we have the problems we do. >> harris: they'll never give that power grab up the criminals. >> absolutely not. >> harris: they get everything. i wonder how much difference at all does it make, we have a vice president right now who came from that state who was the top law enforcement officer in that state, right? and the white house seems to be tone deaf on this issue. just a quick thought on that and then i'll let you both go. >> the white house has actually just appointed a progressive prosecutor to the federal bench. so we keep putting public defenders into positions of authority in law enforcement and makes the system unbalanced. kamala harris is the worst criminal street gang in the state of california has been kamala harris, jerry brown, george gascon, rob bont yeah and gavin newsom. they all support each other and endorse each other and they are continuing and causing this chaos. >> harris: lisa, thank you very much and detective mcbride, appreciate your perspective. the white house is finding itself short on answers. we'll go deeper now. police on the front lines saying the feds could do a lot more to help if they wanted to. this comes as a dozen democrat-led cities now, 12 top their all time homicide records this year. critics pointing the finger at their liberal policies. we'll look very closely at two law enforcement veterans and their perspectives on this and see if we can get the answers that the white house doesn't seem to want to see in "focus" next. >> the president could start by talking straight up to the american people and say stop disrespecting the police. and then say stop defunding the police. veteran homeowners- you a smart move when you bought your home. now make another one and turn your equity into cash. with the newday 100 va loan you can take out up to $60,000 or more. veteran homeowners- with home values at all-time highs and rates at near all-time lows now's the time to do more with your home equity. veterans are calling newday at a record pace to take advantage of the newday 100 va loan. you can borrow up to 100% of your home's value to upgrade the kitchen, add a pool for the grandkids, or have the security of cash in the bank. with an average cash out amount of $60,000, you can do more. ♪ [text alert] ♪ son of a bi— beth? 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put the power of the federal government behind these individuals so when they are caught they face stiff penalties and stay in jail and the penalty and the consequences for that is -- would be off the charts. that will stop a lot of that activity. >> harris: when law enforcement has to come up with a legal way to wrangle dangerous criminals that means somebody is not doing their job. david spunt has this report from washington >> this bothers me very much. >> america's top law enforcement official attorney general merrick garland sounding the alarm on a nationwide spike in crime from smash and grabs in california, to more than 1,000 murders this year on the streets of chicago and surrounding areas. america's cities, small and large, are under the microscope and breaking records. >> we have seen an increase in crime over the course of the pandemic. there are a range of reasons for that. and what we're -- our focus is on what we can do to address it >> those comments from jen psaki come as the president's approval rating for handling crime at 36%. 61% disapprove according to a new abc poll. the white house and justice department also hearing frustration over increasing numbers of police officers leaving the force. >> when law enforcement officers feel like you don't have their bakesbacks in these communities they'll find another job and rightfully so. >> the white house is proposing nearly $300 million in additional funding in next year's budget. the head of the national sheriffs association said much more is needed. >> 300 million across the country would equal about $18,000 perjure is -- jurisdiction. >> last month the department of justice announced $139 million to hire nearly 1100 local law enforcement personnel now. i'm told hiring is already underway. harris. >> harris: david spunt reporting from washington to give us that federal level view of all of this. in "focus" now two law enforcement veterans james smallwood, national fraternal order of police treasurer you are and the president of the san francisco police officer's guild. james, your initial reaction to what the feds are doing at this point? >> thank you for having me on, harris. i think the biden administration is looking at the same numbers we all are and frankly americans are tired of the violent crime in this nation and tired of being terrorized and victimized across our country and we can't continue to do the same things we've done year after year if we are going to expect a change in course on polling numbers and on violent crime. we have to do something different. the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and continue to expect a different result. that's what we're doing. we have to change course and hold these violent criminals accountable and focus on the policies that are looking at resolving criminal justice system and make sure we're doing what we need to do to protect our communities across this country. >> harris: when he was running for president, joe biden might get a photo op here and there, are you guys leaning in hard on getting some time with the president of the united states out of this? reporters are hitting a wall. >> absolutely we're doing everything we can to represent not only our members but the communities we serve. seeing violent crime spikes in our communities across the country and all these urban areas is a significant concern not only for our safety but for the people we're here to work for. we're doing everything we can to communicate with the biden administration. what we need to focus on is the fact that legislators and prosecutors have turned their backs on violent crime and they are turning a revolving door criminal justice system into a violent community that we have to sit in every day and watch our friends and family members be victimized and it is just not right. >> harris: i want to lean in on the actual people who have to do this job, police officers. let's go to seattle for that part of the story leaving the force in droves now are officers. the total number of them down by more than 15% between april of 2020 and 2021. despite this, the city is still slashing its police funding for the projected budget at $-- it's down as crime is surging in seattle. shootings, robberies, thefts, those categories spiking in the double digits. mike, your thoughts. >> good to be with you again. my thoughts are clear that what we're seeing across the west coast and particularly in seattle is the result of the defunding nonsense activism and we're seeing and hearing from the community that they're fed up. we have to look to groups such as the aclu and their bail reform activism. and clearly these criminals who conduct the mob criminality and raid our businesses are clearly getting away with the crime itself and all one has to do is go to aclu watch.com as groups like you mentioned across the nation, cities like los angeles, sacramento, seattle, san jose, hawaii, you name it, we started the united coalition of public safety. it will be police unions along with the f.o.p. to galvanize with our communities we represent and serve humbly to recapture and wrestle back control from the political and activist class that are clearly responsible for this crime wave. so i entice people to go to aclu watch.com and click on to what the aclu has been doing and this crime wave is a direct result of that. >> harris: it is fascinating what you are saying. you actually have an action plan now to make up the difference of where some of the feds and local governments are not meeting the needs of the people. their one job they have to keep them safe. fascinating. thank you for giving us that. i will put it up across our social media. our website so people can access it. you are from seattle. it was a great segue leading cops in that area. this gets personal for some police officers. portland police with a scary warning last week because they want to do the job but here is their reality. the department tweeted this, due to the critical incidents and staffing shortages now officers are only responding to priority calls and warning, some response times would be delayed. salt lake city another example of a struggle with emergency response. residents there back in august faced an average wait of more than 17 minutes and down to 13 minutes in november. 13 minutes is a long time if you are having a heart attack or someone has broken their back in your home or you are being robbed. that is critical, critical time. and as we look at those numbers they all represent people. james, how do we get beyond this point? >> absolutely. you know, harris, you have hit the nail on the head. we have folks calling police when seconds matter and we're taking minutes and sometimes hours to get there. it is completely unacceptable. when we look at cities like austin, portland, seattle struggling with the defunding movement where politics has taken over instead of focusing on what's important, the people that they serve, we are looking at numbers of response times increasing and we are having a shortfall in officers. as we continue to villainize the law enforcement profession and prioritize criminals we'll see that number continue to spike and response times and see violent crime and homicides in chicago and new york and los angeles spike between 40 to 60% so far this year. it is unacceptable and we aren't taking the problem seriously. we need to reverse course and focus on holding folks accountable and law and order priorities. if your legislators aren't holding those priorities at the top of their list, vote them out. >> harris: i don't know how the white house and others cannot hear this. just to give voice to what you are saying it would at least help. james and mike, so important to have you part of this conversation today. thank you for being in "focus." >> thank you. >> harris: crime spiraling out of control. this is not just about the edges of the country. as you are seeing we're talking to real people on the ground. we aren't hitting the celebrities and all that. they now can tell you about robberies and home invasions and what not happening in their neighborhoods. this is happening in the center of the country, too. i mention mostly 100% democrat led cities. chicago, the city facing their highest murder rate in decades. top 12 cities all led by democrat mayors with those horrific numbers. if that's not enough, smash and grab robbers run rampant with little if anything stopping them. massive backlash after chicago's mayor lori lightfoot blamed store owners for not hiring more security and buying more cameras. >> what is happening there is no retribution. criminals know they can smash and grab everything and we watch them do it and can't do anything about it. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ if your dry eye symptoms keep coming back, what?! no! over the counter eye drops typically work by lubricating the eyes and may provide temporary relief. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda-approved non-steroid eye drop specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you are allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. ♪♪♪ this holiday, ask your doctor about xiidra. umph! veteran homeowners- you deserve more. ask your doctor about xiidra. more cash, more savings, and more financial peace of mind. newday can help you get it with the newday 100 va cash out loan. it lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value: up to $60,000 or more. and veterans are saving an average of $615 every month. with more ways to help more veteran families, no bank, no lender, no one knows veterans like newday usa. >> man: what's my safelite story? my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ my daughter has type 2 diabetes and lately i've seen this change in her. once-weekly trulicity is proven to help lower a1c. it lowers blood sugar from the first dose. and you could lose up to ten pounds. trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. it's not approved for use in children. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. side effects include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity. >> harris: a grim and terrifying milestone for chicago. a stunning 767 murders committed there so far this year. that's the most for chicago and the city in decades. the most of any city in the nation this year. cook county well over 1,000. retail store owners in chicago and employees being terrorized by robbery. critics are pointing the finger at mayor lori lightfoot's soft on crime policy. the mayor is now placing blame directly on the store owners claiming they aren't doing enough for their own security. here is the president of the illinois retail association. >> i was very disheartening not only to the retailers of the city of chicago but frankly throughout the state to hear that kind of rhetoric. i think it demonstrates a lack of awareness of the significant investments that retailers put into protecting themselves and their consumers but also the scope of the problem. i think what's important to note it is being treated as retail theft like kids stealing candy bars when this is part of a could ordinated effort. >> harris: you have to punish the people who are the victims if you aren't punishing the vick tills. garrett tenney, tough days for this mayor. >> harris, when you talk to folks who live in chicago's hardest-hit neighborhoods there is not a lot of confidence in city officials who they say are busy pointing fingers and playing the blame game while their communities are torn apart by crime and gun violence on a daily basis. [sirens] >> gail knows the cost of rampant street violence all too well. >> he was my son and best friend. >> his son was shot and killed after a family halloween party in october. he is just one of the more than 767 people killed in chicago this year, the highest number of murders in three decades. city officials are struggling to address both the surge of violence and a recent string of brazen daytime robberies on the magnificent mile. the mayor put some blame for the crimes on the business owners. >> i'm disappointed they aren't doing more to take safety and make it a priority. >> chicago is by no means alone. across the midwest. >> i was the victim of a carjacking. >> all i could see was a hoodie. >> gun pointed at my head the whole time. >> 12 major cities have already broken homicide records this year including indianapolis, louisville, columbus, toledo and st. paul, minnesota. in chicago newly formed -- some local activists say it is clear they can't rely on city leaders to fix this. >> imnote waiting on government to fix our problem. if they were going to fix them they would have been fixed by now. until we get our hands around it and do something about it, it will only continue to get worse. >> one neighborhood has gotten so fed up with the rising crime it is now hiring its own private security group to patrol the streets. the newly created neighbors association said it will cost at least $190,000 a year and is asking folks who live there to help pay for it on top of the other bills they already pay for public safety, taxes. >> harris: their taxes. the cost of everything has gone up. inflation and so on and so forth and now they have to pay for the job of keeping themselves safe when others aren't on the job. garrett tenney, thank you. james craig former detroit police chief was on the job for a long time. now he is the republican candidate for michigan governor in "focus" now. you and i have talked many times about how this would spiral out of control when they were not pressing cases and charges against those rioters who were looting and killing in the streets of america after the death of george floyd. you said this is what's going to come if they don't start to deal with the actual crime. >> right. >> harris: my question for you have we arrived at a point we can easily turn around? the platform you are running on. >> we can. we have to have the right leadership. clearly you have the progressive leaders who are political servants, not public servants, and they are not looking out for the real victims. they are just not doing it. they divert. you listen to lightfoot. she points blame. out in philadelphia you see what is happening. their murder rate is surging and the district attorney says there is no crime problem. and how do we let these so-called political servants continue down this path? they're not being challenged. >> harris: you brought up the district attorney in philly. let's watch and listen and i will come back to you. >> it's important that we don't let this become mushy and bleed into the notion that there is some kind of a big spike in crime. we don't have a crisis of lawlessness. we don't have a crisis of crime. we don't have a crisis of violence. >> harris: we have victims on this very show, the woman moments ago who said a gun was held at my head the whole time. because we might be frightened and we might want to survive a situation with a criminal that makes us mushy? >> he is shameful. he is an embarrassment. the chief law enforcement officer in that county. i wonder how many family members has he sat across and said it's just mushy, we don't have a crime problem? what about that mother's son? what does he say to her? i have talked to family members, victims of homicide and he just sits there and calls it mushy? i have to tell you, harris, the other issue becoming more and more clear to me, i recognize many of these chiefs in these cities that are run by these progressive mayors, they are going to have to start stangd up and stepping up and speaking out boldly. i've been talking about these progressive, reckless prosecutors in some instances, judges, and these chiefs have got to stand up. reject the mayor's assessments and also i've also said many times what about the men and women who serve? who supports them? now they want to back off of defunding and refund the police. but the issues remain. they can't retain police officers, they can't recruit police officers, and police officers still don't feel supported. where is the leadership there on that issue? they want to reduce violent crime in these cities it is more than just throwing money at it. >> harris: obviously. if that were the case what the white house would doing now would fix it like a magic wand. by the way, it is all tax dollars and all fine and good. americans don't want to spend less money on their law enforcement. i think they've made that clear. but you can't have back what you already lost. you have to really recruit for a chief best in seattle. she have is gone now after they defunded her salary by 40%. i want to ask you about a particular lane of crime. in your experience why do you see more in one category like this, carjacking is soaring in major cities across america. the brazen crime is up 44%. 45% in d.c. then up a staggering 80% in florida. so from chicago to washington, d.c. to portland, 81% in new york city. in fact, people tell me they lock their cars inside their garages certain models because they know they'll do anything to get into that house or place of business to get to that range rover. that's one of the top ones hit on the east coast. why that category of crime? >> let me just say one word, no consequences. you have heard it throughout your show today. these criminals know there are no consequences. we think about what happened at the christmas parade, even some of the media reported it as the car did it. no, the car didn't do it. somebody who a judge decided to let out on $500 bail using the car as a weapon just weeks prior and goes out and murders the elderly and children and we talk about the car did it because we don't want to victimize the criminal. we have it wrong and i will tell you 2022 will be a great year. i don't care what the president said about we're going to take it back. we are going to be -- americans are fed up. they want change. they want strong leadership. they want public service that pay attention to the community. i've talked to those men and women who live particularly in vulnerable communities. they want effective policing. so it just has to change. >> harris: look, on the hill you hear talk of a red wave. what you are talking about is kind of a reall occasion of voting if you will among people who might choose their well-being over their politics. we'll have to see if that plays out. james craig, always good to have you in "focus." thank you very much. >> thank you, harris. >> harris: with crime already becoming an issue for next year's mid-term the gop are blaming squarely all of this on democrats and their policies. >> when you get rid of bail you shouldn't be surprised when you get more crime. when you defund the police you shouldn't be surprised when you get more crime. democrats have legit mizeed crime now. that's what is so frightening. >> harris: this is what the candidate james craig, former officer of detroit was just talking about. republicans seeing the mayhem as a platform, a way to reach the voters in major cities. majority in those cities. jason rantz in "focus" next. i've spent centuries evolving with the world. that's the nature of being the economy. observing investors choose assets to balance risk and reward. with one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. agile and liquid. a proven protector. an ever-evolving enabler of bold decisions. an asset more relevant than ever before. gold. your strategic advantage. mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! i promised i wouldn't miss the show and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? 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just this hour house speaker nancy pelosi with this. >> what it is, it's absolutely outrageous. it cannot continue. but the fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from i don't know where. maybe you do. we cannot have that lawlessness become the norm. >> harris: i don't know where. really? i don't know where. jason rantz is a talk radio host in seattle ktth in focus now. where could it be coming from? >> i'm assuming it has nothing to do with all the policies that nancy pelosi and fellow democrats support. i'm sure it has nothing to do with that. maybe she visited her district once in a while and see what others are seeing. politics is local at the end of the day. we talk about the national issues like the debt ceiling but the fact of the matter is the average person doesn't follow the debt ceiling talk or any of the nuances of it. they follow what's going on on the ground. when they go to the grocery store they have a potential of getting attacked by someone who is homeless because we haven't taken care of that issue. business owners having stores broken into all the time. and of course you are seeing more and more people know people who have been victimized in cities and that matters. >> harris: i wonder what the messaging is like inside the house today among democrats because what she said is on the heels of this from congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez just last week down playing the wave of retail crime you are talking about. in an interview she said a lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually happening. not panning out. then the white house had to answer for what she said. >> we don't agree. we have seen some of these extremely disturbing videos showing retail theft in both major retailers as well as state and local leaders have identified it's a ser oous concern. >> harris: they would call us liars if we didn't have video? the national republican congressional committee. chaos, one of the main themes is crime. >> the crime situation other control. >> prices are going up. >> democrats can't protect us across the world, our streets or can't protect us at the board. >> how did president biden get this so wrong? >> harris: will it be effective? >> i think it will be. going into this last national election, the media and democrats had donald trump to distract everyone from what was going on on the ground. i remember at the time due to the lawlessness in democrat-led cities saying cnn saying this is trump's america. they don't say it's biden's america. there is nothing else that will distract the american people they were able to effectively distract them when it comes to president trump. this should not be political. it should not be political to say we shouldn't be cutting funds and resources to our police departments to keep us safe and it certainly shouldn't be political to say hey, if you are a dangerous suspect who uses a weapon to break into someone's home holding them as you are stealing from them we should put that person in jail. zero dollars bail is absurd. we shouldn't be getting political about this. i don't think the average person sees any of this political but when they go into that ballot booth, when they go to the voting booth and fill out the ballot it becomes personal and political because they know where each side stands. >> harris: very well put. you have seen so much of this in your city and seen police officers defunded and leaving in seattle. appreciate always your perspective and time. thank you. thank you for watching "the faulkner focus", america's crime crisis. we will keep a deep dive look and keep it in focus until maybe something can fix it. 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