The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on urban crime policy descended into a shouting match Tuesday, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) hammering former Biden official Gregory Jackson Jr. over his group’s advocacy for “two spirit” safe spaces as an alternative to police funding.
At issue was a report produced by the Community Justice Action Fund (CJAF), where Jackson served as executive director before being tapped by President Biden to help lead the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The report, A Policymakers’ Playbook to Reduce Gun Violence Without Policing Communities, explicitly argued against increasing police budgets and urged lawmakers to instead invest in “safe space initiatives led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, trans, and gender-nonconforming people.”
Hawley seized on the phrase. “What’s two spirit?” he asked flatly.
Jackson hesitated. “Well, I don’t know exactly,” he admitted, before trying to pivot to broader themes of outreach, victim services, and community-based violence intervention.
The former deputy director of Joe Biden’s “Office of Gun Violence Prevention” gets very confused when Josh Hawley reads from his own report which says we should defund the police and invest in “safe-space initiatives led by two-spirit, trans people.”pic.twitter.com/lkOXmV1C5t
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 30, 2025
But Hawley wasn’t letting go. “You say we shouldn’t invest in the police, but we ought to invest in two spirit community programs. What is that? I don’t know what that is. I have no idea what that is,” he repeated.
Jackson, visibly frustrated, admitted he was “not completely aware of the language” in the report, then tried to turn the tables by accusing Hawley of being “two-faced.”
“Oh no, sir,” Hawley shot back. “You’re looking at somebody who’s reading you your own words, and I’d like to hear an answer. Here’s the answer: you don’t have any solutions. You want to invest in gobbledygook and take away money from police officers who actually keep our community safe. And when you’re called on the record, you deny it. It’s all there in black and white. And your record is there in black and white. And it’s a disgrace.”
Jackson raised his voice in reply, invoking his personal story. “As somebody who’s been shot and nearly killed, I take offense that you would think the last 13 years were not focused on reducing violence.”
“I take offense,” Hawley thundered back, “that you do not answer my questions, that you deny your own words, and that you are leading this committee astray. And frankly, sir, your policies are absurd. They’re absurd.”
At that point, committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) slammed the gavel to restore order. “I don’t think we’re getting any place,” he muttered.
For Hawley, that disconnect was the real takeaway: a bureaucracy more invested in fashionable jargon than in solutions that actually reduce crime.
