Jake Tapper slaps down GOP lawmaker: Murders are higher in your state's cities than Manhattan

CNN's Jake Tapper grilled Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) on Monday over why Republicans held a field hearing in Manhattan to focus on crime, when Manhattan is one of the safest large urban areas in the United States — and considerably safer than major cities near his own district.

This parallels a number of fact-checks highlighting Republicans from areas with worse violent crime than Manhattan accusing the District Attorney of ignoring crime as part of their attempt to delegitimize his prosecution of former President Donald Trump, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

"Let's start with the House Judiciary Committee in New York City today," said Tapper. "Republicans being very critical of the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, depicting him as soft on crime, lots of people testifying about their experiences as victims or their family members' victims. Democrats are calling it a political stunt, and they say it's being undertaken to slam Bragg because he's prosecuting Donald Trump and not these other criminals. What's your take on it all?"

"Well, Jake, I think there's a bigger story here and that crime is at crisis levels across our inner cities, including New York, but Chicago, L.A., I mean, we could we could go down the list," said Waltz. "At the end of the day, to hear the actual stories from these victims, who themselves are the victims, not the criminal, and to hear time and time again that the perpetrators of these violent crimes on on their relatives were not prosecuted or were basically slapped on the wrist, is something certainly I think worthy of the Judiciary Committee highlighting."

"I take your point, and it is horrible what's happening nationwide, although the statistics differ here and there," said Tapper. "I mean for example, you represent Florida's Sixth Congressional District, it's between Jacksonville and Orlando. Both of them have higher homicide rates than New York City, that's according to an analysis from the conservative organization Wirepoints. New York City, statistically, is one of the safest big cities in the country in terms of murder, and that's why I think this focus on New York might look political to some."

Waltz insisted that that's just "one statistic ... look at the amount of assaults, for example on subway stations." (Neither Jacksonville nor Orlando have subways.) He proceeded to say, "Crime is up and crimes up in cities all over the country, including in Florida, and you have to look, for example, you just mentioned Orlando, that's largely a Democrat-run city and county."

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