She's challenging Marco Rubio, but this former police chief has a problem
Congresswoman Val Demings is trying to unseat Senator Marco Rubio. Well, the Florida Democrats did have to run someone... To compete, though, Ms. Demings had to leave a few important points out of her bio, especially when it comes to her time as a police chief in Orlando.
Ms. Deming's commercials say nothing of her time as a rabid Trump-hating congresswoman in Washington. The TV spots mention nothing but her time as Orlando police chief. The 30-second commercials are filled with old pictures of her in uniform, rising through the ranks.
From her ads, you would think she made Orlando the safest city in America. But sorry, Val — crime rose on your watch. Demings doesn't talk about it, but one of the memorable highlights of her stint as police chief is that she lost her gun. No, it wasn't taken away for any misconduct. She really lost it.
But losing her gun was just a preamble for her post-police career. Based on her public recognition, Demings went to Washington in 2016, elected from a minority-majority district in Central Florida. The area does not have a good record of sending the best public servants to our capital. Former representative Corrine Brown went to federal prison after being convicted on 18 felony counts.
Image: Val Demings. YouTube screen grab (edited).
Once in Washington, Demings joined other Dems in varsity-level Trump-bashing. Despite her inexperience and lack of formal legal training, Nancy Pelosi chose her to help present the Democrat's first impeachment case against President Trump to the Senate. She read her scripts with the appropriate amount of radical rancor. Our present president should have taken lessons from her.
When Joe Biden announced he would choose a Black woman as his running mate, Demings again made some headlines. After the idea of Stacey Abrams was scuttled, Demings became the buzz for about 18 hours. But when they ran her name up the flagpole, Demings's problem was that no one saluted.
All you need to know about Demings's congressional career can be summed up in one sentence. It appears from Congress's own website that she sponsored 37 bills in the House, none of which ever became law. And of course, she voted with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time.
But enough of the typical Democrat political résumé. Back to the good stuff: the police chief who lost her gun and now wants to represent Florida in the Senate.
It was a dark and stormy night. No, actually it was a typically warm and balmy February evening in Orlando, back in 2009. Demings drove home in her city-issued unmarked car. Rather than take her 9mm Sig Sauer pistol into the house, she left it in a duffel bag in the car. The duffel bag was not locked in the trunk. It was in plain sight in the passenger compartment of the car, and the car was left in her driveway, not in the garage. She claims that the car was locked.
Demings claims she left her gun unsecured in her car because young people were having a sleepover at her House that night. Dear chief, have you ever heard of a gun safe? $42.97 on Amazon. Mine works great. By the way, with your own children in the house virtually every night, why didn't you have a gun vault from your first day as a rookie patrolwoman?
Demings received a reprimand...and another gun. I wonder if the good people of Orlando paid for it.
Ed Sherdlu is a pseudonym.