Study debunks ‘red state murder’ claim from Hillary Clinton, Democrats

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EXCLUSIVE – A new study reveals that local Democratic officials and Soros-backed prosecutors in cities and counties are responsible for the rising violent crime rates in otherwise red states. The study debunks recent claims by Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, that rising crime rates are due to policies pursued by Republican or "Trump" states.

"The Blue City Murder Problem," a study published Friday by the Edwin Meese III Center for Judicial and Legal Studies at the Heritage Foundation, found that, of the 30 American cities with the highest murder rates, 27 have Democratic mayors. Within those cities, there are at least 14 "rogue prosecutors" either backed or inspired by billionaire Democrat supporter George Soros.

Authors of the study, Charles Stimson, Zack Smith and Kevin D. Dayaratna, concluded, "Whether a state as a whole voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden has nothing whatever to do with the homicide rates within its constituent parts."

"The high murder rate is almost exclusively cabined in cities run by Democrats and with Democrat district attorneys, many of whom are Soros bought-and-paid-for rogue prosecutors or inspired by Soros, groups like the egregiously misnamed Fair and Just Prosecution and other battering rams of the movement," they wrote.

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George Soros, billionaire and founder of Soros Fund Management LLC, speaks at an event on day three of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2020.  (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Heritage authors' data analysis revealed that, if the homicide rates of Democrat-run cities and counties in Republican-led states are subtracted, the overall homicide rates for those states are dramatically reduced.

For example, in Missouri, St. Louis City and St. Louis County heavily influence the state’s homicide rate with about 46 and 14 homicides per 100,000 residents, respectively. Removing both counties drops Missouri’s homicide ranking from fifth to 20th in the nation on a list ranking states by their homicide rate from 2014-2020.

Georgia’s homicide rate is heavily influenced by crime in Atlanta, encompassing Fulton and DeKalb Counties. Dropping these two counties causes the state’s homicide rate to drop 17% and the state’s ranking to fall from 13th to 21st in the nation.

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Heritage’s study is a rebuttal to a study published last month by a left-leaning advocacy group, Third Way, titled "The Red State Murder Problem" which stated that "murder rates are far higher in Trump-voting red states than Biden-voting blue states."

Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks on stage at Museum of Modern Art May 24, 2022, in New York City.   (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

"The authors of the Third Way 'study' either intentionally neglected or simply don’t understand that the 'criminal justice system' within the 50 states is not a homogeneous nationwide system, but rather an amalgamation of thousands of microcosms consisting of federal, state, county and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors and unique approaches to the enforcement of state law," the Heritage authors wrote.

The findings from the Third Way study have been cited by dozens of media outlets, including the Washington Post, the San Francisco Examiner and NBC News, the Heritage study notes.

Third Way’s study was also cited by leading Democratic politicians like California’s Governor Gavin Newsom, who in an Oct. 18 tweet  stated, "The @GOP love to campaign on being ‘tough on crime.’ But here’s the truth — their policies don’t work. 8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates are red. Murder rates were 40% higher in red states than blue. Gun deaths are almost 2x as high in red states."

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In a Nov. 3 interview with CNN, failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has been on the campaign trail for Democrats ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms, perpetuated the Third Wave data by claiming "states with the highest crime levels are states run by Republicans. That's just a fact."

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The Heritage study found in counties where homicide rates are the highest – which contributes to overall state homicide rates – the vast majority of those local leaders are Democrats.

For example, in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, which encompasses New Orleans, the city with the highest homicide rate in the country as of June 2022, Dis­trict Attorney Jason Williams, Mayor LaToya Cantrell and all seven members of the City Council are Democrats.

In the city St. Louis, which has the fourth-highest homicide rate, all the elected officials are Demo­crats. The 28 members of the Board of Alderman are all Democrats, as are Circuit Attorney (the equivalent of a local district attorney) Kim Gardner and Mayor Tishaura Jones.

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The Heritage authors said policies enacted by Democrats have contributed to the "lawlessness across blue cities and the steep rise in crime rates." Those policies include refusing to prosecute misdemeanors like theft, drug possession and shoplifting and refusing to prosecute violent teenagers in adult court for such crimes as murder, child abuse and rape.

"To suggest now that Republican elected officials who have followed different policies have contributed to crime increases is at best laughable," they concluded.