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Controversial chef and democratic socialist candidate Francesca Hong has reversed her position on defunding and abolishing the police, saying in a recent podcast interview that she has become “serious about public safety.”
Hong is a Wisconsin Democratic lawmaker perhaps best known for her 2020 call to “cancel Thanksgiving” because of its colonial history. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and a leading Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor.
In an episode of “Pod Save America” released on Tuesday, Hong was asked about her 2020 tweets in which she wrote that “police exist to uphold white supremacy” and “I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.” The podcast host asked her, “I’m wondering how your views on policing have evolved since 2020?”
In response, Hong said, “My views have only become stronger in that I’m serious about public safety and I will not abolish the police.”
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“My views are that people are struggling right now and need basic needs met, and I want to focus on stopping violent crime and giving law enforcement the resources and the training that they need, but ensure we are also holding accountable law enforcement that does not follow the law,” she added.
Pressed on whether she still believes police exist to uphold White supremacy, Hong answered quickly, “No.”
Hong was then asked, “What has changed in your thinking since you posted that in 2020?”
She answered, “I’ve had more conversations with people who are more directly connected to the problems and have learned that it is most important for a public servant like myself to make sure we’re looking at sensible, practical solutions that will help keep communities safe.”
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“When you talk to people who are most justice impacted, a mother who lost a child to police violence, people who have contended with injustices in historically marginalized communities, but just also looks like making sure we are implementing solutions and helping change the material conditions of people’s lives,” she said.
During the interview, Hong also characterized her previous statement fantasizing about a “world without prisons” as “more aspirational.”
Critics have argued that Hong has a history of expressing controversial progressive takes, with former X posts resurfacing in recent weeks.
In 2019, she wrote, “I ate two bites of my kid’s cheeseburger at a Culver’s in black river falls and told him they ran out of ice cream. Mostly just wanted to leave bc I was on the verge of a [sic] anxiety attack… to [sic] many old white people who didn’t think we spoke English.”
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In another since-deleted post, Hong wrote, “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed indigenous folx [sic] and women, so be it.”
In a recent CNN appearance, Hong was asked, “Do you still believe that Thanksgiving should be canceled?”
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“I’m a chef, and one of the first meals that I made that was for the community when I was 16 [years old] was a Thanksgiving meal,” Hong responded. “But Thanksgiving is also a time that’s incredibly painful for many people in our communities. And so, I think there, I wanted to make sure that people understood that there are multiple views, but views can evolve.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Hong, Pod Save America and the DSA for additional comment.
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