Democrat’s anti-police record resurfaces ahead of key special election

FIRST ON FOX: The Democratic Party candidate seeking to win a House seat in Tennessee’s upcoming special election has a long history of anti-police rhetoric, which she espoused repeatedly on a now-deleted social media account and in interviews before becoming a state lawmaker in 2023.

Aftyn Behn, who is running against Republican Matt Van Epps in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election, also worked as a regional organizing director for the nonprofit activist group Indivisible before becoming a state lawmaker. The radical left entity was also a frequent advocate for defunding police departments, calling it “critical” during the height of the defunding movement.

“Where is the proposal that dissolves @MNPDNashville?” Behn asked on an old social media account, which has since been deleted, in response to a separate social media post from a Nashville City Council member stating that local officials had submitted a “replacement budget proposal” to strip Nashville police of $2.6 million in funding.

KAMALA HARRIS RETURNS TO THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN TRUMP COUNTRY TO SUPPORT “AOC OF TENNESSEE”

“If it’s been hard for all of you to imagine a world without police…we can do it and there is a world,” Behn later said in an interview with a local Nashville advocacy group.

Behn posted most of his comments during the height of the “defund the police” movement in 2020 and 2021 following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Amid violent protests that often turned into dangerous riots and looting after Floyd’s death, Behn also downplayed the violence and ridiculed white people for criticizing the looting, saying it was simply how minority communities expressed their grief over Floyd’s death.

Democratic congressional candidate Aftyn Behn, a Tennessee state representative, is running in the Dec. 2 special election for a vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Aftyn for Congress)

“Looks like Aftyn is getting a visit from the Ghost of Wokeness Past,” joked Republican strategist Matt Gorman. “Democrats have repeatedly been haunted by past positions they thought they could hide from. Ask Kamala Harris about her advocacy for taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgeries for convicted illegal immigrants and how it’s happening.”

Behn did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. However, Democratic strategist Eric Koch argued that attacks on Behn have increased because “Republicans are worried in a district that Trump won by more than 20 points,” adding that Democrats making this race competitive shows they are in a good position to take back the House in next year’s midterms. The special election is scheduled for December 2.

Although popular in the wake of Floyd’s death, the push to “defund the police” has become a political liability for many Democrats running in recent elections. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was criticized before his victory for his past anti-police rhetoric and apologized on Fox News. Earlier this month, a progressive U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan reportedly quietly deleted old social media posts in support of defunding the police.

DEM HOUSE HOPEFULLY HELP THE WORKING CLASS DESPITE TAX RISE PROCESS

“I’m currently doing a seminar on transformative justice, which is about how to imagine a world without police, what that looks like and what community mechanisms look like. How people can’t police themselves,” Behn said in an interview with Nashville Musicians For Change in July 2020.

“If it’s been hard for all of you to imagine a world without police, please tune in, maybe not to this episode, but to the next one. Because I’m going to talk about things that I’m learning and growing as an organizer. Because I think, especially for those of us who are young and talking to our parents about what abolishing the police looks like, that we can do it and that there is a world.”

Behn made her comments while working with the left-wing nonprofit Indivisible, which has also pushed to defund the police, calling the effort “critical…to keeping everyone safe,” in a Facebook post in 2020. That same year, the group called on people to call their local, state and federal lawmakers to demand policies and budgets that divert money away from police departments and toward “black communities.”

Before joining the Tennessee state legislature in 2023, Aftyn Behn served as regional organizing director for the left-leaning nonprofit Indivisible. (Aftyn for Congress; Jason Davis/Getty Images)

“Hello, especially to the 54 percent of Americans who think burning down a police station is justified,” Behn said in another message in response to a poll asking who considered the destruction of a Minneapolis police station justified. The police station burned to the ground and the police were forced to abandon the station.

Amid the chaos caused by Floyd’s death that resulted in billions of dollars in damage and many lives lost, Behn was also co-hosting a podcast at the time. During one of the episodes, “Black Lives Matter”, Behn argued that “it is not up to us as privileged white people to decide how marginalized communities express their suffering, pain and grief.”

She referenced the ongoing looting and rioting, calling it a “trope” for white people to say the looting was bad.

“I would really challenge you when you see these stories of looting and you go back to this type of law and order response. I really challenge you to step back and think about what’s driving this,” Behn added of the riots. “You shouldn’t condemn it because you have no idea where they come from and what the generational trauma is that has been inflicted on them by the police, by institutional racism.”

SCOOP: MAGA INC., ALIGNED WITH TRUMP, JUMPS INTO CONGRESSIONAL BALLOOR CASE AT HIGH STAKES

During the same podcast episode, Behn suggested that police don’t actually serve the purpose of guarding and protecting Americans.

“You think calling the cops will save you?” Behn asked his listeners. “Black men are killed when white women call the police.”

Behn also came under fire this week for other comments on her podcast, during which she said she hated her hometown of Nashville and all the Southern-style elements that come with it, like country music.

Metro Nashville Police Department police car in downtown Nashville (Metro Nashville Police Department)

In addition to Behn’s remarks in interviews and on podcasts, the Democratic House candidate also repeatedly espoused defunding police rhetoric on a now-deleted X account, which was Twitter at the time.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

For example, Behn responded to a post, saying that “the Los Angeles teachers union” was demanding a commitment to “defund the police” before committing to returning to in-person learning for students, with a response that called on teachers in his state to do the same. The message Behn was responding to also called for more similar requests across the country.

“Let’s go, Tennessee teachers! We support you!!!!,” Behn wrote in response to the message.

“Your individual positive experiences with cops do not make up for the fact that the entire criminal justice system was built on institutionalized racism,” Behn said on his now-deleted Twitter account.