Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2015: on Crime

Jeb Bush: Death penalty a tough call, but victims' families benefit

Scott Walker: Independent investigation for any death in police custody

A: I'm going to have the backs of the men and women who carry the badge in this country. I know the overwhelming majority of them are doing the right thing every day under extremely difficult circumstances. In the rare instances if they're not, we're going to speak out about that. I'm proud to say I'm the only governor in America who signed a law that says there needs to be an independent investigation any time there's a death of someone in police custody.

John Kasich: Save money by converting prisoners to taxpayers

A: Well, it relates to things like early childhood education, poor kids, people who are in prison, giving them a chance to get their lives back if they want to earn their way there. But let me say that I knew that, number one, we would save money by taking people out of prison and letting them get a job where they could become a taxpayer. To me conservatism is giving everybody a chance to be able to be successful.

John Kasich: Community must understand challenge of police & deadly force

A: We came out with a unanimous recommendation to create a statewide policy on the use of deadly force, and examination and recruiting and hiring practices [amongst police forces]. And now it is really critical that the community understands the challenges of police and that police can understand what is going on inside the community.

Chris Christie: Community policing will avoid African-American police deaths

A: I think that there's a problem across the country with our citizens and our police force interacting with each other in a positive, constructive way. We need to engage in a different way. And you see what we have done in Camden. There we brought in an entirely new police force and we trained them in a different way in community policing.

Q: Recently Hillary Clinton said, "race still places a significant role in determining who gets ahead in America and who gets left behind"; do you agree?

A: I think there's still racism in our society. And every leader in our country should be speaking out against that and should be doing everything we can to provide opportunity for everyone.

Donald Trump: Black lives matter, but we need strong police presence

TRUMP: It's a massive crisis. It's a double crisis. I look at these things, I see them on television. And some horrible mistakes are made. But at the same time, we have to give power back to the police because crime is rampant. I believe very strongly that we need police.

Cities need strong police protection. But officers' jobs are being taken away from them. And there's no question about it, there is turmoil in our country on both sides.

Q: Do you understand why African Americans don't trust the police right now?

TRUMP: Well, I can certainly see it when I see what's going on. But at the same time, we have to give power back to the police because we have to have law and order. And you're always going to have mistakes made. And you're always going to have bad apples. But you can't let that stop the fact that police have to regain control of this tremendous crime wave that's hitting the US.

John Kasich: Death penalty is consistent with justice & Christian values

KASICH: I don't agree with that. Look, we're just looking for the drugs that we need to administer it. And in this debate, sometimes we forget the victims. Listen, I review all these cases. And to some people I've said we will let them stay for life in prison if I wasn't certain of who did what. But I've had these grieving families come to see me. And look, it's about justice. It isn't about revenge, it's about justice. And I support the death penalty and will continue to do that, because a lot of times, families want closure when they see justice done.

Q: What about religious objection to the death penalty?

KASICH: I think it's consistent with my Catholic faith. If I didn't, I'd have to exorcise it. But look, at the end of the day, I'm also a secular official, right? I'm also the governor. Now, it doesn't mean that my faith doesn't influence me. But I have a job to do as administrator of the state of Ohio.

Martin O`Malley: I was re-elected as Baltimore mayor because I made progress

O`MALLEY: It's interesting, isn't it? For all of the progress that we make, there's always so much more that needs to be done. When I was elected in 1999, our city had become the most violent, addicted, and abandoned city in the US. But we went on in the next ten years to achieve the biggest crime reduction of any American city. And now, Baltimore's population is growing again with greater numbers of young people moving back here. Sadly it's also true that we still have huge pockets of poverty in our city; and the anger that erupted in our city did so in some of the poorest, hardest hit neighborhoods. But still, I would not have been elected with 91% of the vote first time or reelected four years later with 88% of the vote if we were not making substantial progress.

John Kasich: My policies worked to integrate police and community in Ohio

KASICH: Well, regardless of whether the verdict was right or wrong, the people of Cleveland should be proud of themselves for being a model of non-violent protest. When there are large numbers of people who do not think the system works for them, we have to respond to it. That's why I created a task force on integration police into the community. And there were two recommendations up front: a policy regarding the use of deadly force, statewide in Ohio, and secondly research into the recruiting and enrollment of minority police officers. We've got to make sure that people in these communities know that there's an opportunity for them that there is hope, that people and authority are listening, that there will be solid responses.

Jeb Bush: 1994: build more prisons; serve longer sentences

One of Bush's central themes during the 1994 campaign was his desire to streamline the execution process for death row inmates. In order to do this, he proposed limiting death row inmates to only one appeal with the state, a measure he hoped would speed up the state's execution process. Bush named his plan "one trial, one appeal," and released it in the spring of 1994.

Enacting the "one trial, one appeal" plan would have required Florida voters to approve an amendment to the state's constitution, but this hurdle didn't dissuade Bush. In November, he reiterated his goal, saying, "I want to accelerate, not slow down, the enforcement of the death penalty in Florida."

Jeb Bush: 1990s: punishment over therapy; 2010s: that hardens people

Bush "does not flip-flop," a Bush adviser said. "He learns. When he learns, he changes." Bush was particularly influenced by the experience of governing: he suddenly had access to measurements of what worked, and what did not, on issues like juvenile justice

Newt Gingrich: On Ferguson: stop when a policeman tells you to stop

GINGRICH: First, I think we do need criminal justice reform. The system doesn't work right. We have people locked up who shouldn't be. We tear apart communities that need young men to be able to go back home. So, I think we need serious hearings at the federal level. Second, there has to be some recognition--and this will probably get me in trouble--young people should be told, when a policeman tells you to stop, stop. There's a dual requirement here. You have the first African-American president. You have an African-American attorney general. And six years into their effort, we're in some ways further apart. That's a tragic failure of leadership. The community has to respect the police. And the police have to respect the community. And both have failed.

Q: Are you saying that this is the fault of Barack Obama?

GINGRICH: I'm saying that the president and attorney general use language which is divisive.

Martin O`Malley: I reduced both violent crime and incarceration rates