Leading Dem Promises To Thwart Trump’s Effort To Crack Down On DC Crime
Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin is pledging to introduce a resolution as early as Wednesday that would terminate President Donald Trump’s emergency powers to take control over the Washington, D.C. police force.
Raskin, a frequent Trump foe who represents a Maryland district including part of the D.C. suburbs, plans to introduce a joint resolution to end the president’s emergency powers allowing the federal government to take control over the district’s law enforcement under the Nixon-era District of Columbia Home Rule Act. Raskin’s resolution is almost certain to fail in the House given Republicans’ majority, but it could put moderate Democrats who do not want to be perceived as soft-on-crime in an awkward position when the lower chamber’s members return in September.
“Of course, the president has a major political bone to pick with the people of Washington, D.C., who have voted 10-to-1 against him at every opportunity,” Raskin told Axios, who was first to report the Maryland Democrat’s plans, in an interview Monday. “So this is one more chance to exact revenge.”
Trump on Monday invoked the Home Rule Act, which allows the president to take control over D.C.’s police force for 48 hours when “special conditions of an emergency nature exist.” The president could extend his emergency powers for up to 30 days if he notifies congressional committees with jurisdiction over Washington, D.C. about the rationale for invoking the act.
The Trump administration has sent “statutorily required notification letters” to the House Oversight Committee and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, White House staff secretary Will Scharf announced at the briefing.
If Trump wants to federalize the district’s law enforcement beyond 30 days, he would need to obtain buy-in from Democratic lawmakers. A joint resolution extending the president’s emergency powers under the Home Rule Act would require a two-thirds majority to pass in both the House and Senate.
“This is Liberation Day in D.C. and we’re gonna take our capital back,” Trump said during a White House briefing Monday. “We’re taking it back.”
Raskin’s forthcoming resolution and public statements from a spate of House Democrats are signaling that a majority of the caucus will oppose Trump’s decision to federalize D.C. ‘s law enforcement to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital.
“Violent crime in Washington, D.C. is at a thirty-year low,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a Monday statement on the social media platform X. “Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department. And zero credibility on the issue of law and order.”
“Get lost,” Jeffries added.
The White House has argued that D.C. underreports instances of crime and claimed on Monday that if the nation’s capital were a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the country.
DC Police Union President Gregg Pemberton backed Trump’s decision to assume temporary control of the district’s law enforcement Monday, arguing “crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits.”
It is unclear whether Raskin’s resolution will receive a vote when the House resumes legislative work in September. The Maryland Democrat also claimed Monday that Trump is turning his attention to violent crime in the district to distract Americans from the administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), House Republicans’ campaign arm, hammered Democrats for lining up to oppose the president’s federal takeover of the D.C. police force and deploying the National Guard to the nation’s capital.
“While President Trump and Republicans are working to clean up the streets of our nation’s capital, Democrats like ‘heavy-hitting’ radical Hakeem Jeffries are fighting harder to protect criminals instead of protecting communities,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Raskin did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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