Dingell: Law enforcement will be ‘wedge issue’ in 2020

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., joins Yahoo News Editor in Chief Daniel Klaidman and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff to discuss what she sees as the most important issue for undecided voters in the 2020 presidential election: law enforcement. Dingell tells the "Skullduggery" hosts that she sees major divisions and concerns among her constituents when it comes to law enforcement and police reform, similar to the way trade issues played out in the 2016 election.

Video transcript

DEBBIE DINGELL: If you'll recall, four years ago, I thought trade was a very big issue. I thought that the president, President Trump, had identified that as an issue, took it far more seriously than Hillary Clinton did at the time. TPP was a big issue-- people forget about these things four years later-- and that none of the auto workers still haven't recovered from what happened in 2008. Are their jobs ever safe?

But one of the issues I'm going to identify for you this time that I think is-- trade's there, but it's not-- you know, they don't know quite who to believe. They want their jobs to come back home. People understand supply chain, but law enforcement. And support of law enforcement is an issue I am seeing in the suburbs, is an issue we really do need to pay attention to, to defund the police and what does it really mean, is something that I have said to people for some several weeks is an issue I'm worried about.

DANIEL KLAIDMAN: What now, how do you see Joe Biden handling that issue, and have you conveyed this to either him or his campaign?

DEBBIE DINGELL: I have, and they've been very clear that they are opposed to the [AUDIO OUT] community policing. What you are seeing is, you see what's happening in the urban cities and some of this crime. And the-- just the violence that you're seeing in some of these protests, and Donald Trump is trying to use it as a wedge issue. We have to-- my-- I go to-- I went to all the Black Lives Matter events in my district, but I also, almost every weekend now, there is a support the law enforcement event in one of my communities. And I go to those as well, because I know many of those men and women.

They have been a glue during this pandemic. They do wellness calls, they respond to domestic violence. They're the glue of a lot of the communities as well. There are bad apples in law enforcement, and we have to have the discussion about systematic racism in this country. And it is a fact that a young black man will be treated differently than a young white man if stopped.

But we can have both discussions, and too many people are afraid of having uncomfortable discussions, and that is a mistake for us as Democrats if we avoid the discussion because we don't want to have it. Donald Trump is trying to use it as a wedge issue, and we can't let him do that.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: It's so interesting that you said that about the crime and law enforcement issue, because it's been clear to me, you know, for some weeks, if not months now, that this was Trump's one play. And in part because we have seen a real spike in violence, in murders, in many of our major cities since the Black Lives Matter protests began. And that, you know, in some respects, you know, I wonder whether there's anything the Biden campaign can say about it.

The real driver here for the president is A, the spikes are real, and B, the tendency among many of your fellow Democrats to not want to talk about it. So what's your advice to your fellow Democrats about what they need to say to address this?

DEBBIE DINGELL: They need to not be uncomfortable about it. That is why I go to every event there is, every Sunday in the last month, there's been an event in my district, and I'm there, and I'm thanking the law enforcement for what they do. But-- and I'm working with my Black Lives Matter and Survivors Speak groups, and they're making it very clear that-- well, one of the group, Survivors Speaks, one of the women that heads that is that she is trying to have the discussion about racial inequality, but she's not attacking the police either.

I facilitated discussion with them with one of the police departments this past week, so that people are really having dialogue. But you are right about, you know, this COVID is just creating a lot of stress. I have had several really tragic murders in my district alone. A family of four was killed last weekend, another family was, but it's in those communities, it's the law enforcement. It's the local police and the Sheriff's departments that are going in, figuring out what's wrong, finding the perpetrators, arresting them.

And a lot of them have been not the violent kind of crime we think of sometimes when we talk about burglaries or the-- we can talk about protests in the cities, but they've been family members that have snapped, they've been people just-- there are so many different things that are going on out there right now. And what we need to understand is that our law enforcement really have, like our teachers, are social workers. So domestic abuse is really on the rise. Or, we've got vets that have post-traumatic stress, or people who have mental health issues.

And who's the first person that's responding to those? And in many cases, I've worked with them. I have people with mental health issues that come into my congressional office. I don't want to put them in jail, I want to get them the help they need. And many of the law enforcement I work with want to do exactly that. And so what we need to do is invest in making sure that they've got the tools and the support that they need, and reinvest in mental health, period, in this country. But I'm not-- it's an uncomfortable discussion, but I'm having it because I'm not giving this to Mr. Donald Trump as a wedge issue.