2024 – WASHINGTON, DC – Our capital city has the fourth highest homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 residents per year. That is nearly six times higher than New York City and also higher than Atlanta, Chicago, and Compton.
If Washington, D.C. was a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the nation.
Well, our President does not like those statistics very much.
Recently, House Republicans moved quickly to follow President Donald Trump’s lead as he took unprecedented action to target Washington’s locally elected government further heightening the GOP’s scrutiny of the capital city and its Democrat elected leaders.
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said he would summon Mayor Muriel Bowser, Council Chair Phil Mendelson and Attorney General Brian Schwalb to Capitol Hill next month for a hearing.
To foreshadow the scope of the meeting, Chairman Comer stated, “For years, the D.C. Council’s radical, soft-on-crime agenda has emboldened criminals and put public safety at risk in our nation’s capital.”
I think that he meant business.
His voice was one of many in the GOP who hailed Trump’s moves to seize control of the D.C. police force and deploy the National Guard in the capital. Speaker Mike Johnson, for instance, said in a post on X that “House Republicans support this effort to CLEAN UP Washington, END the crime wave, and RESTORE the beauty of the greatest capital in the world.”
House Republicans were forced to deal with city-related matters sooner, however. Trump’s executive action Monday commandeering the Metropolitan Police started a 30-day clock for presidential control. Extending Trump’s control of the department would require congressional action forcing the White House and GOP congressional leaders to make a decision as they also deal with messy internal fights over whether to force the release of more documents related to the ridiculous Jeffrey Epstein case and a politically explosive congressional stock trading ban.
In a letter sent to the Hill Monday informing of the police takeover, Trump said he would retain control “until I have determined, in consultation with the Attorney General, that the emergency has ended or for the maximum period permitted” under federal law.
Trump made no mention of seeking extended control of the department at his news conference Monday morning, where he was flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other administration officials. He instead called on lawmakers to address the District’s longstanding bail policy, which allows criminal suspects to be released pending trial without putting up any money. At first, the mayor was fired. However, she regained her position within days.
Democrats, as usual, sharply, and viciously objected to Trump’s moves in social media posts. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying Trump has “no basis to take over the local police department” and “zero credibility on the issue of law and order” were offered by plenty of folks who could use a lesson, or two, on constitutional law.
While Republicans can likely push D.C.-related bills through the House on party lines, Democrats in the Senate could use the filibuster to keep them from reaching Trump’s desk. Vaulting that obstacle would require a 60-vote majority, and it’s unlikely that Democrats would join their Republican colleagues in droves. But it could force some vulnerable Senate Democrats into tough votes over crime and safety ahead of midterm elections.
It will be interesting to see the changing views in America in criminal justice.