Seriously? Congressman Jerry Nadler says rising NYC crime 'only an illusion'

Jon Levine
New York Post
Mon, 17 Apr 2023 19:13 UTC

© Bloomberg via Getty Images

Manhattan Congressman Jerry Nadler

The Judiciary Committee's top Democrat wants everyone to know that surging Big Apple crime is only an illusion manufactured by the party's political enemies.

Manhattan Congressman Jerry Nadler said he will come out swinging in defense of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg during the panel's Monday hearing in New York.

The hearing will focus on the victims of Bragg's soft-on-crime policies.

"We will show the essentially fraudulent nature of what [committee chair] Jim Jordan and company are claiming about the crime rates in New York and compared to other cities, including Republican-led cities," Nadler told The Post.

"And we will talk about how this whole hearing is part of Jim Jordan and the Republicans' general attempts to obstruct justice and to attack the DA in Manhattan and to obstruct justice in the Trump case," he added, referring to the president's indictment in Manhattan last month.

Rep. Jerry Nadler says Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will vigorously push back against claims from GOP members during their hearing in New York City monday Getty Images

The GOP-controlled committee will set the tone of the proceedings with four announced witnesses, while Democrats will only be able to call one, Nadler said. Democrats have so far not announced who they will invite to speak.

City crime statistics belie Nadler's rosy assessment. Overall violent crime surged in Manhattan South by 34% and Manhattan North by 14.5% in 2022 — Bragg's first year in office — compared to 2021.

"I dare Jerry Nadler to ask me or [crime victims] to our faces ... and tell us why the lives that are being destroyed here in New York City don't matter [just] because it's happening elsewhere," said Jennifer Harrison, a victims-rights advocate who has been called by Republicans to testify at the Monday hearing.

Comment:

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Meanwhile Republicans are complaining because the supposedly neutral C-SPAN broadcaster won't cover the New York City hearings.

The House Judiciary Committee Republicans are warning of left-wing bias of C-SPAN after it had reportedly declined to set up a camera for Monday's field hearing on crime in New York City.

"Is @cspan the latest version of media bias?" the House Judiciary GOP Twitter account tweeted Saturday afternoon, linking to a story reporting on C-SPAN's cold shoulder to covering GOP-led congressional hearings.

The account has been questioning C-SPAN's original reasoning for not having a camera on the House Judiciary field hearing.

"I wanted to reach out to you as soon as I could to let you know that we won't be able [to] send a crew to cover the House Judiciary field hearing on Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan on Monday," C-SPAN assignment desk manager Jon Kelley wrote to the committee Wednesday, according to reports. "I know it is making a lot of news and we did look at possible coverage but we just don't have the resources at this time."

A House Judiciary Committee staffer responded incredulously to the email.

"Are you all serious?" the staffer fired back in an email, the New York Post reported. "It's the biggest hearing in Congress that I can think of."

Kelley replied in an email.

"I just wanted to let you know as soon as I could," he wrote.

But a Friday tweet exchange suggested C-SPAN is now planning to have a camera at the field hearing in Manhattan.

"This is a lie and hasn't been expressed directly to the committee," the House Judiciary GOP account tweeted in response to C-SPAN's claim it planned all along to have a camera there.

Media reports about the potential Monday snub by C-SPAN might have led to a change in available "resources," and the House Judiciary GOP prodding.

Unlike the recent Twitter-National Public Radio spat, C-SPAN notes on its website it "receives no government funding."

"Funding comes through license fees paid by television providers — the cable and satellite companies that offer C-SPAN to their customers as a public service — and through advertisements on our digital platforms," the FAQ page reads. "C-SPAN's mission is to provide our audience with access to the live, gavel-to-gavel proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and to the other forums where public policy is discussed, debated and decided — all without editing, commentary or analysis, and with a balanced presentation of points of view."

But C-SPAN has already skipped the House GOP border field hearing in February, because of no "Dem members" in attendance, according to the Post.

This time, Democrats reportedly are going to attend the Manhattan field hearing on violent crime with plans to pivot the conversation to gun control, CBS News reported.

The House Judiciary GOP account posted a poll asking, "Who's worse: C-SPAN, NPR, or Joe Biden."

Biden dominated that poll at around 87%, while C-SPAN (5.1%) edged out NPR (7.7%) as being slightly less worse to respondents.

The House Judiciary GOP account has bashed C-SPAN for using resources on other Democrat-friendly endeavors this week