(CNSNews.com) - Crime was cited as a major issue that led to the defeat of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in Tuesday’s election.

When asked whether President Biden feels that he has focused enough attention on dealing with crime in big urban cities, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president is committed to working with whoever the people of Chicago elect, and she said that Biden inherited a rise in crime from the Trump administration.

“Chicago had their mayoral or the first round of the mayoral elections yesterday, and it’s the latest big American city where frustrations about crime was a central issue of the cycle. Does President Biden, does he feel that this administration and Washington writ large is putting enough attention on dealing with the issue of crime, particularly in areas– big urban areas like Chicago,” a reporter asked.

“Let me first speak to the mayor’s race. The president is committed to working with whoever, whomever the people in Chicago or the people on the ground - whichever if it’s a city or a state - whomever they choose to represent them, so that is the case and will continue to be the case, so I’m going to withhold commenting on any specific race, but I know you’re asking about crime specifically,” Jean-Pierre said.

“Look, the president put forth as you know a comprehensive safer communities plan, and he put that forth after inheriting a rise of crime. That is something that he has been focused on since the beginning of his administration,” she said.

“Let’s not forget in that plan he calls for more than 100,000 police officers to go into the community, to work with communities and make sure that communities feel safe, families feel safe, and that’s what the president has put forward,” the press secretary said.

“And you’ll see, when you see his commitment to crime, you’ll see that in his budget next week as you know, we’re going to release that March 9, and it will reflect his commitment as well as we’re trying to continue to fight crime, which is the president has been leading at from the beginning of his administration, but what we have seen is that for years, for years congressional Republicans have been doing the opposite,” she said.

“When you think about the COPS program, which is something that the president put forward. They have wanted to defund that, to take that away, and if you think about that, that leads to defunding the police,” Jean-Pierre said.

“Just recently they called on defunding the FBI, and you think about the border security funding. They want to take that away as well, so the president has been committed, and one more thing I would add, let’s not forget the banning assault weapons,” she said.

“That is a key part of this when we think about crime, when we think about gun crime that we believe will help alleviate the crime that we’re seeing, keep families safe, keep communities safe across the country. So the president has walked the talk. The president has been very consistent on making sure that communities feel safe and fighting crime and will continue to do that,” the press secretary said.