I'm Ryan Grimm and welcome to Deconstructed. In a minute, we're going to hear from Intercept

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Hello and welcome to Deconstructed. I'm your host today, Akale Lacey, politics reporter

at The Intercept.

For much of the last year with a midterm election looming, Republicans talked nonstop about

crime.

The American people know that there is rising crime across this country and it is coming

because you have D.A.'s and prosecutors, you have judges that are weak on crime. And

unless we get rid of these progressive D.A.'s, then we've got no hope. Then you just better

hope that if you get shot or stabbed, that you don't die. Because justice ain't common,

the cavalry ain't common and you're never going to get any kind of retribution.

There was an unprecedented crime wave, they said, and Democrats were to blame. Liberals

were soft on crime and wanted to defund police, though of course police budgets continued

to balloon. Republicans have had success pushing the crime narrative. They rolled back criminal

justice reforms in even the most progressive states like New York and California. But at

...