CSPAN - Washington Journal 08/12/2025

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Aug. 12, 2025 06:59-09:00 - CSPAN

02:00:56

Washington Journal 08/12/2025

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Main

kirk bado

24:31

mimi geerges

cspan 21:53

Appearances

donald j trump

admin 04:53

judge jeanine pirro

fox 01:19

muriel bowser

03:42

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darrel rundus

00:06

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unidentified		And now app or online at C-SPAN.org.
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		Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll take your calls and comments live.
		Then a look at the electoral landscape ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, including redistricting battles and the races to watch with National Journal hotline editor Kirk Bado and crime and data analyst Jeff Asher on recent crime trends in the U.S. and President Trump's crackdown in Washington, D.C. Washington Journal starts now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Tuesday, August 12th.
		President Trump announced that he will federalize the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and send the National Guard onto the streets of Washington to fight crime.
		The president can take over the D.C. police for a period of up to 30 days by declaring that, quote, special conditions of an emergency nature exist.
		After that time, Congress would need to pass a law.
		DC's mayor has noted that violent crime has declined for the past two years after a sharp post-pandemic spike in 2023.
		This morning, we're taking your comments on that story and on crime levels in your community.
		Here are the phone numbers: Republicans, 202748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000, and Independents, 202-748-8002.
		DC residents, we'd love to get your take on that.
		You can call us on 202-748-8003.
		You can also use that same number to text us, include your first name in your city-state.
		And you can post your comments on social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ.
		Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
		This story is on the front page of all the national papers.
		Take a look.
		Here's the New York Times.
		Trump proclaims federal control of the DC police.
		The Washington Times, National Guard troops sent to D.C. Here's USA Today, Trump troops must, quote, rescue D.C.
		And the Wall Street Journal: Trump orders takeover of D.C. police.
		And finally, the Washington Post: Trump ramps up federal control in D.C.
		It says that surge already visible on city streets.
		The mayor says city has little choice but to cooperate.
		Let's take a look at a portion of what President Trump said yesterday during that announcement.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.
		This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we're going to take our capital back.
		We're taking it back.
		Under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States, I'm officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.
		You know what that is?
		And placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control, and you'll be meeting the people that will be directly involved with that.
		Very good people, but they're tough, and they know what's happening.
		They've done it before.
		In addition, I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they're going to be allowed to do their job properly.
		And you people are victims of it, too.
		You know, you're reporters, and I understand a lot of you tend to be on the liberal side, but you don't want to get mugged and raped and shot and killed.
		And you all know people and friends of yours that that happened.
		And so you can be anything you want, but you want to have safety in the streets.
		You want to be able to leave your apartment or your house where you live and feel safe and go into a store to buy a newspaper or buy something.
		And you don't have that now.
		The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on earth.
		Much higher.
		This is much higher.
		The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years, and the number of carjackings has more than tripled.
		Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate probably ever.
		They say 25 years, but they don't know what that means because it just goes back 25 years.
		Can't be worse.
		Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people.
		And we're not going to let it happen anymore.
		We're not going to take it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is an article from the Hill.
		D.C. Police Union Chair supports Trump takeover.
		It says that the head of the D.C. Police Union praised President Trump's temporary takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department and deployment of National Guard troops as, quote, a critical stopgap amid out-of-control crime in the nation's capital on Monday.
		He, quote, we stand with the President in recognizing that Washington, D.C. cannot continue on this trajectory.
		Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits.
		That's the police union saying that.
		And we'll take your calls now.
		Here's Ray Ithaca, New York, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I fully support President Trump doing this.
		I think the key is we just need to try to make everything safe and safe for everyone.
		94% of the victims of crimes in D.C., per the Heritage Foundation, are black.
		I think this is something that will help everyone.
		And even today, on like the channel, I try to watch a little bit of everything.
		I'm morning, Joe.
		Even Scarleborough himself and Eugene Robinson were saying a bigger police force might be something that could be a positive thing.
		As you say, the police union is supporting this.
		I think just the positives are going to overweigh the negatives.
		I think we can go in and just try to get some things under control and make things safe.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And here's Andrew in Sterling, Virginia, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		First off, I'd like to compliment you on the work you do as a host at C-SPAN.
		You actually have more on the ball than those three Sunday women that host those shows on the major channels, Margaret Brennan, Kristen Walker, Dana Besch.
		You do a really good job of challenging people with their crazy, sometimes crazy comments.
		Now, as far as what's happening today, the only crime being committed in our cities today to any big extent is what Trump and his ICE goons are doing, going after innocent people, unidentified, throwing them into vans, arresting them, beating them.
		That's what America has now voted for, a fascist police state headed by our great criminal in chief, Donald Trump.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Andy, you're not too far from D.C. Do you go into the district?
		Do you go to restaurants, do things?
		Do you work in the district?
		Tell me what's your relationship.
unidentified		My relationship with D.C. is both my sons work and live in D.C. What Trump is doing is nothing but a racist attack on a Democrat black city.
		What he is doing is uncalled for.
		I don't think we've seen this in our nation's history for decades.
		My sons live in D.C., they work in D.C., they are basically safe.
		Unless you really go into a really bad part of town, which you will find in any city in America, there is no problem there.
		Actually, crime has dropped by 30% just in the past couple years.
		What Trump is doing is uncalled for.
		He really wants to turn.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, what do you think, Andy, about there just being more police presence, right?
		I mean, these are the National Guard will be on the streets.
		Wouldn't that deter crime in those areas that you said are bad in D.C.?
unidentified		Yes, ma'am.
		You know what?
		Unfortunately, D.C. is under the control of Trump and the federal government.
		What has to be done is more money has to be provided to D.C. to hire more cops on the street.
		And for whatever reason, the Republicans in Congress do not want to give D.C. that added money.
		D.C. does need extra cops, but Trump and the Republicans have decided, no, they're not going to give it to him.
		The biggest crime being committed in D.C. right now is the Trump crime family, which last year reports said he has made over $3.5 billion since he first.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I got that, Andy.
		And this is about funding for D.C. Here's Fox News reporting that the Trump administration cutting $20 million in D.C. security funding after federal law enforcement ordered to increase a presence.
		It says this is from August 9th.
		If D.C. doesn't get its act together and quickly, we will have no choice but to take federal control of the city.
		That obviously was just announced yesterday.
		Let's take a look at what Mayor Bowser said yesterday in response to President Trump.
muriel bowser ▲ ● ▼		I believe that the president's view of D.C. is shaped by his COVID-era experience during his first term.
		And it is true that those were more challenging times related to some issues.
		It is also true that we experienced a crime spike post-COVID.
		But we worked quickly to put laws in place and tactics that got violent offenders off our streets and gave our police officers more tools, which is why we have seen a huge decrease in crime because of those efforts.
		We have been able to reverse that 2023 crime spike.
		This year, crime isn't just down from 2023.
		It's also down from 2019 before the pandemic, and we're at a 30-year violent crime low.
		We're not satisfied.
		We haven't taken our foot off the gas, and we continue to look for ways to make our city safer.
		We know, however, as most have heard from the president's press conference, that he has prerogatives in D.C. unlike anywhere else in the country, including his authority given by our Home Rule Charter to require the mayor to require me to supply services of the Metropolitan Police Department.
		And he also has control and the ability to deploy the National Guard.
		But let me be clear, as our Home Rule Charter is also clear, and the President's executive order restates.
		Chief Pamela Smith is the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, and its 3,100 members work under her direction.
		The Home Rule Charter requires the mayor to provide the services of MPD during special conditions of an emergency, and we will follow the law.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That's Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C.
		And here is Roland in Detroit, Independent Line.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Graham rising to you.
		You know, when people, police chiefs and stuff say crime is down, I hear this talking point from police chiefs around the country.
		That's not good enough.
		You know, it's so many horrific incidents of crime that they never should say crime is down.
		That being said, this system doesn't want to fix crime.
		A lot of the youth and even adults, they don't haven't bought into this system because this system doesn't care anything about them.
		It's an easy fix to get youngsters and other people to move away from nefarious activities.
		But the government doesn't want that.
		You know, it's an easy fix.
		I don't understand.
		So, Roland, what is the fix?
		The fix is, for instance, with youth who are, quote, vulnerable or whatever, endangered, you have to involve them in things on a consistent and daily basis.
		Cultural, educational, field trips, get them involved in things in the community, use their time and energy to help them do productive things.
		To me, to me, that's easy, but this system is not doing that.
		It just let these youngsters roam and try to use them.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Roland, I want to ask you about Janine Piero, who has become confirmed as Attorney General for D.C.
		She says this, this is Fox News, she says that we need to get tougher on young people that are convicted of crime.
		She says, I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the heck out of you or anyone else.
		She says, but they know that we can't touch them because the laws are weak.
		I can't touch you if you're 14, 15, 16, 17 years old and you have a gun.
		She wants to change that and start charging people as young as 14 as adults.
		Do you think that that will help?
		Roland?
unidentified		No, people like that and those policies are the problem.
		They are the ones that are the problem in our community.
		You know, ignoring people who have been disenfranchised or living in poverty and all that kind of stuff in the richest country in the world.
		I mean, this country doesn't share its resources with the people, especially the most vulnerable.
		So that woman talking all that crap, she is the one that is the problem.
		And ignoring our youth and other people who are vulnerable and disenchanted with the system is just going to make things worse.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Got it.
		Al in Delaware, Republican line.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes.
		I just like to say that the mayor of Washington, D.C. is nothing but tell nothing but lies.
		She says that crime is down.
		That's an absolute lie.
		And they ain't count no violent crime as carjacking.
		That's a very violent crime.
		You could get killed easily doing that.
		They're not counting that.
		They're not counting the youth crime that's been going on for a long time.
		And the police even said it's out of control.
		So I don't understand what the question is about it.
		The police said it's out of control.
		So she's lying.
		They're telling her that she's lying.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Al, how are things in Delaware where you are?
unidentified		They're fine.
		They're fine.
		No problems here.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		No problems at all.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You guys don't have any violent crime?
unidentified		Very, very few.
		And Philadelphia, they lie in Philadelphia, too.
		They say about crimes down and all.
		Every morning you watch the news.
		There's killings going on in Philadelphia every night.
		I mean, what is it lie?
		People can see it right on the news.
		There's killings every night in Philadelphia.
		And they're saying crimes, violent homicides are down.
		Ain't that crazy?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's hear from Eric in Washington, D.C. What do you think of this, Eric?
unidentified		Good morning.
		The guy from Delaware, he's funny because you look up Wilmington, Delaware, if you don't think it's crime, but crime is crime.
		I'm just like, no, I don't have much respect for the mayor and definitely not the president because, you know, one white guy get hurt, then all of a sudden it's a state of mercy.
		He should have been declaring state of emergency for Texas immediately after people just got killed at that target or got beat up.
		These people got killed at Target.
		So he is not doing that to Texas.
		So he just, he's just nickpicking what he wants.
		He's the clown in chief and it's like, whatever, dude.
		I'm from D.C.
		I don't know.
		Go ahead, man.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I was going to say, have you seen anything, any difference yet?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		There's reports of FBI agents that have already been deployed.
unidentified		What have you seen?
		The same thing, what they see on the news is, but they're not, they're not, you know, I'm giving an example.
		So you can sell drugs anywhere in D.C., but in certain areas.
		Like you go to Georgetown, try to sell some drugs, you're going to go to jail immediately the same second.
		You go to the southeast, and that police will allow it.
		So, you know, this country, this is all just the way it's been.
		You know, you could be.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think, Eric, if the National Guard is deployed or there's more police presence, more law enforcement in places like Southeast?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay, so people wouldn't be able to sell drugs on the street, right?
unidentified		Oh, this drugs being sell, as we speak right now in the Southeast, right now, on the street, so don't do that.
		All you got to do is send the cameras down there.
		Let's be realistic.
		Let's be honest about this.
		The police are out there every day, and they allow this.
		You know, the National Guard is going to allow it because that's how it is.
		But the minute you go over to Georgetown and you go on right there at Wisconsin M Street and stand your tail on that corner and sell some drugs, see what happened to you immediately.
		So it, you know, they allow it.
		You know, it's like when the crack came is, oh, they want you to send you to jail instead of sending you to rehab.
		So, but now it's just the meth problem with the with the white community.
		Let's be real.
		Now all of a sudden they want to get up programs.
		So.
		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		We got it, Eric.
		Here is a comment from Carl about crime on Facebook.
		Here in the Canton-Akron Arrow area of Ohio, it's awful.
		People can't even go to a fair without getting shot.
		I understand why he called in the National Guard, and it's always Dem-run cities.
		And Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House, says this.
		D.C. will be safe.
		D.C. will be clean.
		D.C. will be beautiful.
		D.C. will be set free.
		And Gary posted on Facebook, the crime in D.C. is horrible, and it's turned to a dump in various areas close to the Capitol.
		And visiting some of the businesses is likely to get you mugged.
		Not to mention the outdoor potty that they use the streets and sidewalks for.
		It's disgusting and wasn't like that in the 90s, even, just the last 16 to 20 years.
		Beatrice in Mississippi, line for Democrats.
		What do you think, Beatrix?
unidentified		The crime in D.C. is horrible, and it's turned to a dump in various areas close to the Capitol.
unidentified		And visiting.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Beatrice?
unidentified		The outdoor potty that they use the streets and sidewalks for.
		It's disgusting.
		And whatnot.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		That is not Beatrice.
		This is Robert, West Yarmouth, Massachusetts Republican Line.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Robert.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're on the air.
unidentified		Okay, yeah.
		I live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
		We have very, very minimal crime, and we might have one murder a year.
		But I'm afraid to go anywhere in this damn country, especially Baltimore.
		I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but Baltimore is the murder capital of the country besides D.C.
		And I see the advertisements for it all the time.
		And I wouldn't go to Baltimore if it paid me or D.C. From what I understand, what President Trump does, he knows exactly what he's doing.
		He's one of the smartest presidents we've ever had besides JFK.
		I just believe in what he's doing.
		And like I said, President Trump knows exactly what he's doing.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, speaking of other cities, here is more from President Trump's announcement threatening federal intervention in other cities.
		Take a look.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		This issue directly impacts the functioning of the federal government and is a threat to America, really.
		It's a threat to our country.
		We have other cities also that are bad, very bad.
		You look at Chicago, how bad it is.
		You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is.
		We have other cities that are very bad.
		New York has a problem.
		And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland.
		We don't even mention that anymore.
		They're so far gone.
		We're not going to let it happen.
		We're not going to lose our cities over this.
		And this will go further.
		We're starting very strongly with DC, and we're going to clean it up real quick, very quickly, as they say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And back to the calls now.
		The numbers are on your screen.
		If you'd like to join us, here's Nate in New Jersey, Independent Line.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		How are you doing?
		Hope everyone's having a great Tuesday.
		Just wanted to give just a few opinions on this issue.
		First, Baltimore under Mayor Scott, the crime is the lows it's been in years, and that's just a fact.
		The stats just came out from there.
		One of the other problems is all these inner cities that are being attacked and, you know, are labeled blue cities, they lack resources, they lack opportunities deliberately.
		So anywhere you give people, you don't give them opportunities, don't give them the resources, crime is going to go up.
		That's just a fact.
		And it always seems like the blue cities are targeted, but there's crime in Appalachian cities where white people are, where there's hardly any black and brown people, but those areas are never highlighted as crime in dangerous areas.
		And I think is this a racist dog whistle coming from someone that is black and brown?
		Because the same crime that happens in our areas happens in their areas, but just maybe never seems to be highlighted.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Nate, what kind of resources do you think need to go into these cities?
unidentified		I think a lot of people like job training.
		They need opportunities for employment, you know, things like that.
		Like a lot of our children that don't have after-school programs have been taken away.
		A lot of our different areas of the inner city are just destitute.
		They lack opportunities and things like that, and that lack resources.
		And the reason, meanwhile, how I was able to make it out of the inner city was through the resources and the programs that I had coming up.
		And it just seemed like all those programs are destitute.
		So what do you expect a lot of people to do with lack of resources?
		So that's just a very score I want people to just think about all the time too when they say all these Democrat cities have all this crime, but a lot of the people don't have resources, Mimi.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, Antoinette is in a Democrat city in Philadelphia, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Antoinette.
unidentified		Yes, good morning, Mimi.
		I'm calling because I heard the gentleman a couple of calls back who said that, you know, government has a lot to do with not helping to resolve certain crimes.
		Now, I just want to speak just for a moment about our children.
		And the gentleman just called from New Jersey.
		I just wanted to say kudos to New Jersey because they care about the kids in crime.
		First of all, kids are kids.
		They're not criminals.
		They don't have MOs.
		They don't have a sense of forethought.
		And New Jersey has come up with the concept, which I believe in for years.
		If you put the consequences on the parents, then we may see a difference as far as children are concerned.
		And they are going about doing that exact same thing.
		So thank you, New Jersey, for one simple solution.
		And then I just have one more thing to say, Mimi, and that is about, you know, you have to set an example.
		When you have a president that's sitting up there doing everything he can, just so the outcome would come would be for him to get more money.
		And he has done crimes.
		What does he expect?
		I don't believe that they need that federal government out there.
		All they need is a common sense approach.
		Let the police handle it.
		I believe that the statistics are going down.
		And then getting back to the kids one more time, and I'm just going to say have a nice day.
		When we knew this, when you took the triangles out of the school, the music programs, the athletic programs, the trades, what did you expect?
		And then you get ghost guns to children who had those 3D printers.
		They can go right in there.
		It is a lot of easy solutions.
		And with that, have a nice day.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, here is an opinion in the Washington Post about this.
		This is Megan McArdle saying this.
		Crime in D.C. is falling, but it is still outrageously high.
		That has enormous costs, not just to victims, but to the people who have to take precautions against it, whether installing an alarm system as we did last year, putting bars on their windows, or avoiding certain areas.
		It also takes a toll on the city's economy, driving tourists away and encouraging suburbanites to get out of the city after dark.
		So I'm very sympathetic to Trump's desire to get things under control.
		That said, I am skeptical that deploying the National Guard is a solution.
		And the way Janine Piro was talking about the problem, charge more teenagers as adults, lock them up and throw away the key, recaps the failed anti-crime politics of the 1990s.
		Let's hear from D.C. federal prosecutor Janine Pirro calling for changes in the law to crack down on juvenile offenders.
judge jeanine pirro ▲ ● ▼		And I'm not going to stand here and go over and over the cases, but what I can tell you is this.
		I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you or anyone else.
		They don't care where they are.
		They can be in DuPont Circle, but they know that we can't touch them.
		Why?
		Because the laws are weak.
		I can't touch you if you're 14, 15, 16, 17 years old, and you have a gun.
		I convict someone of shooting another person with an illegal gun on a public bus in the chest.
		Intent to kill.
		I convict him.
		And you know what the judge gives him?
		Probation.
		Says you should go to college.
		We need to go after the D.C. council and their absurd laws.
		We need to get rid of this concept of, you know, a no-cash bail.
		We need to recognize that the people who matter are the law-abiding citizens.
		And it starts today.
		But it's not going to end today because the president is going to do everything we need to do to make sure that these emboldened criminals understand we see you, we're watching you, and we're going to change the law to catch you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Crime in your community.
		We're talking about the federal takeover of the D.C. police.
		We're getting your comments on that.
		Here's Joe, Republican in Natchez, Mississippi.
unidentified		Yes, you might want to check and see that somebody was shot, maybe even killed, just about a mile from the White House yesterday or last night.
		People are getting beat up all the time over there.
		Those guys got beat up for helping a woman so she wouldn't get carjacked.
		It's ridiculous.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And AJ in Fleshing, New York, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, AJ.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm calling with actually a personal story about my recent experience in D.C.
		I have a six-month-old son, and I was in Washington, D.C. from August 5th through August 7th, recently, just a couple of days ago.
		And we were just touring the city, and we just noticed how bad it just looked.
		It just looked like it was in really bad shape.
		There was lots of homelessness just a couple of blocks down from the White House.
		There were people on the floor, and they looked like they were just, you know, really, really in bad shape.
		And we were just shocked.
		We could not believe that the nation's capital looks the way it is.
		And my wife and I were just thinking, wow, what if Trump comes in and cleans this place up?
		It really needs to be cleaned up.
		And here we are, and this is what we're seeing actually happening.
		It was just really kind of an eye-opening experience.
		And it was like we just felt like it was an embarrassment to this nation that it just looks like this.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is what we and AJ, do you agree with President Trump that this is the best way to clean up DC?
unidentified		I feel like it may not even be the best way, but I think something needs to get done.
		And I think that, you know, when we see a system in this kind of shape, I feel like Trump needs to come in there and try something.
		And if it's not really a solution, at least it's, you know, I push towards a solution.
		And, you know, I'm also a teacher.
		I'm also a public school teacher.
		I teach in a Bronx.
		So it's not like I'm coming in with a bias against minorities or anything like that.
		I just see that it's in real bad shape.
		And, you know, Michelle Reed was superintendent of the school system, and that was a shock system also trying to change the education system in D.C. in the early 2000s.
		And that really didn't lead to much, but at least there was an attempt.
		And at least there was a novel attempt.
		My wife was in a car and three guys just tried to attempt to come into us inside our car.
		And I went outside just to go get some food.
		And this happened to me in D.C. a couple of days ago.
		So this is personal experience I'm talking about.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, AJ, here's Natasha Democrat in Laurel, Maryland.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
unidentified		How are you?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good.
unidentified		Good.
		I think it's important to recognize that the, I mean, I think all of us want to address crime, right?
		Nobody wants to be in an area with crime.
		I also think it's important to note that, you know, having a police presence or having the presence of the National Guard is just going to change where crime is happening.
		It's not going to stop crime from happening.
		And I think really what we're talking about here is criminalizing poverty.
		And so, you know, obviously, police don't solve poverty.
		And people in poverty have to resort to all sorts of things that, you know, put their lives in dangers, put the lives of other people in danger.
		And the truth is, going to jail, being incarcerated is, you know, you're still living if you're incarcerated.
		But if it's your life on the line, potentially your survival that's impacted out in the community, you know, incarceration is not, it's not worth.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So what Natasha, what does D.C. do about the homeless population?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think?
unidentified		As in, like, what should they do?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		So President Trump is saying we're going to clear out the homelessness in DC.
		The homeless encampments, I should say, not homelessness.
		Yeah, go ahead.
unidentified		Yeah.
		Well, I mean, when we're talking about clearing out homeless encampments, I mean, we're, again, we're criminalizing poverty.
		And the truth is the solution to homelessness is having people housed.
		Housing is, I mean, housing is health care.
		Housing is, you know, we want to see people who are, we want to see people who are productive members in society.
		And the truth is that without programs, like a lot of other folks have been saying, without programs, without resources, without the appropriate amount of funds allocated to these kinds of services, we're not going to see homelessness end.
		Police presence doesn't end homelessness.
		And that's one of the big things that we're seeing Trump wanting to address.
		And it's just not going to change it.
		We're just going to get rid of the encampments that are just going to keep popping up.
		That's not going to change.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Natasha.
		And this is what Vice President JD Vance said on X.
		The rampant crime and lawlessness in Washington have turned our nation's capital into an utter disgrace.
		Thanks to President Trump's leadership, the American people will have a capital they can safely visit and that they can be proud of once more.
		And we got a text saying it is great Trump is getting rid of street criminals to make DC safer for the business, for the business criminals like him and his 34 felonies.
		That's Angela in Maryland by text.
		And here is Billy Republican Anderson, Indiana.
		Good morning, Billy.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I don't know if we can ever stop this crime.
		I was in New Orleans in 68, and there's just parts of the city that you just don't go to.
		You're not allowed to go into.
		A white person wasn't allowed to even go into the city.
		And that's what's, there's cities all over.
		Chicago.
		Look what happened over here in Cincinnati.
		They beat them people up in Cincinnati because they're not allowed to go in areas.
		See what I mean?
		In other words, it's just, it's all over Chicago.
		There's areas that you're just not allowed to go into.
		You know what I mean?
		They can go anywhere they want to go in the town, but you're not allowed to go there.
		A white person's not allowed to go there.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're not allowed because it's not safe.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is that what you mean?
unidentified		No.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But not technically not allowed.
unidentified		You're just not, they don't allow you to go.
		That's what it amounts to.
		The same thing was going on in New Orleans in the 68.
		There was parts of New Orleans that you just white people wasn't allowed to go to.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And let's hear more from Mayor Bowser on, she was asked about her concerns about the federal takeover of DC police.
unidentified		Do you feel that you're at risk of losing control of the city?
unidentified		Are you worried this is going to be a complete disaster?
muriel bowser ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to work every day to make sure it's not a complete disaster.
		Let me put it that way.
		And I think that with Chief Smith's leadership and her expertise in both the federal space and the local space, we are going to do our level best to maintain, as the chief talked about, to maintain the trust that D.C. residents have in us.
		What could be a disaster is if we lose communities who won't call the police.
		That could be a disaster.
		What would be a disaster if communities won't talk to the police?
		If a crime has been committed, it could help solve that crime.
		That could be a disaster.
		It would be a disaster if people who aren't committing crimes are antagonized into committing crimes.
		That would be a disaster.
		So we are going to work every day to get this emergency put to an end.
		I'll call it the so-called emergency and continue to do our work.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And we got this from Scott on Facebook.
		The federal takeover of D.C. is uncalled for.
		I don't agree with D.C. statehood, but there isn't any reason for this drastic action unless it's to consolidate President Trump's power.
		Most dictators will do this before they take control of a democracy.
		As we know, since if you have control over the local law enforcement, you can easily dissolve the other branches of government by force.
		As far as crime in general goes, it's no better or worse than when Biden was president, as near I can tell.
		Henry, Montrose, Virginia, Democrat, you're next.
unidentified		Yes, hello, can you hear me?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, we can.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go right ahead, Henry.
unidentified		Yeah, I thought the president's speech was kind of misguided because it was more of a deflection from what's really going on with him and this Epstein stuff.
		I think that he sat in the White House and didn't do nothing while people were mugging and killing down at that capital during an insurrection attempt.
		And it was nothing done then.
		He didn't call his National Guard then.
		They did right there in D.C.
		So all of this right here, I think, is kind of like it's trying to throw people off.
		It's nothing going to happen.
		They're not going to do nothing.
		D.C. is smaller than most metropolitan areas around cities.
		Every major city is going to have slum areas.
		Every major city going to have crime.
		And that's just the way it is in life.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But Henry, what do you think if there's 800 National Guard?
		And as you said, D.C. is not that big.
		What do you think will happen?
unidentified		It ain't nothing going to happen.
		It's overkill.
		They're going to have a couple guys over there riding around with D.C. police at night, patrolling the streets.
		And it's going to go on for a few months or maybe a month or two months.
		And then it's going to go right back to normal.
		I mean, the military, and you start sending military after civilians, and you're opening up another can of worms.
		Because first one of them militaries run into one of them neighborhoods and get shot and killed.
		Then you're going to have all a whole, whole different kind of mess on your hands.
		So I just think this was a deflection from this other stuff that's going on with the president.
		You know, you set up and you do this stuff and you say that, and you're sitting in the fighters with 34 felons on you.
		Come on, man.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Let's go to Los Angeles.
		Independent Line.
		Friendzell, you're on the air.
unidentified		Hey, thank you so much for having me on the line.
		It's a pleasure to be on the line.
		I'd just like to say love, peace, and prosperity to everyone in the world.
		I'm just very ashamed to buy this action by the president because it's just bringing more division to this country where we need healing.
		We need to come together.
		And that's what I see is not happening here.
		If they really wanted to improve the crime issue in D.C., which I do visit from time to time, all they would have to do is put in more resources and help out.
		I lived in D.C. for a long period of time, me and my son, when he was much younger.
		And a problem with D.C. that it's always had is that they would take out money from like the boys and girls clubs and the different type of centers that are needed there in the city to help give the youth a resource outside of just sitting at home and not doing anything or playing video games when it's the summer months.
		So that's what I feel is needed.
		But we never hear Mr. Trump, our president, ever talking about the Republican cities as well.
		We just saw things that happened in Cincinnati.
		We saw something that happened in Austin as well.
		And these were white individuals that did this.
		But I just believe that if we took this to a whole nother level and saw that they're just trying to gentify that area and snatch up homes from people and make people scared around where they live, then that's exactly what's going on.
		But thank you again for having me on the line.
		And I pray that this all comes to an end, but I'm not sure it will.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Staying in California this time to Sacramento, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Steve, good morning.
unidentified		Oh, thank you.
		Thanks for having me on the show.
		You know, here's the president, and it's just, I want to stand behind him.
		I think it's surprising that everybody's kind of criticizing it.
		It's been long overdue.
		Come on.
		You know how bad it is in D.C.
		I mean, it's just got to be bad.
		The people don't want it.
		Don't tell me that.
		You know the people there want to have some kind of justice again.
		And so once it happens, it's going to be great.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Steve, one of our callers was worried that things could get out of hand when you have all these people with, you know, military firearms around a city like D.C. What do you make of that?
unidentified		Okay.
		They're professionals with professional guns.
		if you want to start something Okay, got it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat on X.
		He said, let's be totally clear.
		Trump's decision to take over the D.C. police isn't about public safety.
		The most violent cities are in Republican states, and there's no takeover happening there.
		This is just another attempt to distract from Trump's corruption and suppress dissent.
		Roxanne, what do you think of that?
		In South Carolina, Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Hello.
		I just wanted to say, if he was so concerned about the crime in Washington, D.C., when the couple was killed, I think back in May, wouldn't he have got the police there?
		It took the young white man to be beat up for him to finally do something.
		So if that's what it takes, do that means white young men need to be in all these states in order to get a rise out of him?
		And I just think it's not fair.
		And then another thing, instead of him wanting to spend, what, $200 million on expanding the White House, why not help with social programs for Washington, D.C.?
		Why not give some time instead of always taking?
		Idle hands is the devil's weapon, correct?
		So, I mean, not to say what these men, young men are doing is correct, is wrong, but give the people, and especially the homeless, figure out ways to unhouse them, figure out ways of getting them places to where they can afford, to where they won't be on the streets in less than six months.
		Make something of permanence to the city to help the individuals.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Dennis and Laurel, Maryland, Independent Lion, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		You know, it's amazing.
		I'm hearing a lot of people call and they're upset about what he's doing as far as the crime in D.C.
		I live in Maryland, but I'm originally from Atlantic City, New Jersey.
		And every Different, I call them hoods.
		You got different hoods, and you have these problems, and a lot of the programs are being taken away, and a lot of these programs are being underfunded.
		So, you say that you got people saying, Oh, we don't have no program.
		Then you have some places where they do have programs.
		Then you have kids that just decide that they want to do stuff.
		So, if you want to do something wrong, you want to do something illegal, then guess what?
		You go to jail.
		You know what I mean?
		And it's that simple.
		I don't like crime in my neighborhood.
		If I was living in a neighborhood and something was going on, I wouldn't like it.
		You know, but let's be honest.
		Come on, man.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Dennis, so let me see what you think of this.
		This is again Megan McArdle of the Washington Post.
		She says, Yes, we have better ways to address crime than giving 14-year-olds adult sentences.
		We need to punish more consistently, not more harshly, which means more police on the streets and more state capacity to deliver quick justice.
		What do you think, Dennis?
unidentified		What I say about a 14-year-old, when I was 14-year-old, guess what?
		If I did something wrong, guess what?
		I paid the price.
		My mother and my father would beat the holy crap out of me, and at 14 years old.
		So, if you're 14 years old and you're riding 20 and your mother and your father don't know what you're doing, guess what?
		You're behind the got it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Frank and Pompano Beach, Florida, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Frank.
unidentified		Hi, yeah.
		How are you?
		Yes, don't forget now, the wall at the southern border is being closed, and a lot of the illegal aliens are being deported.
		And part of the homelessness, which added, and a lot of resources were taken away from the people of these cities, a lot of these crime-ridden cities were taken up by illegal aliens being in hotels, getting EBT cards, cash, and all this other stuff.
		They seem to be more concerned about the illegal aliens and their well-being than the veterans who are homeless out in the street.
		And, you know, let's face facts.
		They added to our situation here.
		We got crime, and then illegal aliens coming from other countries who are criminals, drug dealers, drug trafficking, and everything else.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, as far as solutions go, Frank, so as far as solutions go, you think it would, I mean, the president had said he wants to clear the homeless encampments out of D.C.
unidentified		Okay, now the crime is down.
		For what reason?
		Because people that were here illegally caused a lot of the crime, which added to the crime we already had.
		So, let's face facts.
		Now, of course, the crime is down because a lot of illegal aliens or illegal migrants were causing a lot of the crimes.
		And look at the Sentinel.
		Nobody concerns themselves with the federal that killed 150,000 young people that's coming into this country on a continuous basis.
		Drug cartels from Mexico.
		I mean, what are we?
		Are we on drugs or what?
		Heroin, a methamphetamines being stopped continuously every day at the airport, on the street, and the trafficking of young people in the back of trucks.
		Are we crazy or what?
		I mean, this Democrat cities, how are they protecting illegal aliens over American citizens?
		Are you out of your mind?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Got it, Frank.
		Here's Natasha in Philadelphia, line for Democrats.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good.
unidentified		I'm just really concerned about the overall picture that America is now in the situation that is now streaming across the world.
		And many times you're so close to a problem, you can't understand what's going on because you won't open your eyes to see the real problem.
		And I think a lot of that is going on in our government right now.
		They don't want to see the real problems.
		First of all, D.C. has home rule, and I think it's had since 1973 or so.
		And no, it's not perfect, but yet D.C. is not a state, and the Congress was supposed to be over that, not the president.
		The president was elected by the people to run the country, which is not being run correctly.
		And I just think that people that are doing all these crimes outwardly are just as bad as the people that's doing crime within the cities.
		And every single urban city, even rural areas, have their crime levels.
		I think that there should be task force put in place for different regions and not just anybody on these task force, not just MAGA, not just Democrats, not just Republicans.
		But I do believe that what he's done to D.C., if he doesn't want to live there, then resign as president.
		Because D.C. is a great place to live.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Tasha.
		Let's take a look at what that Home Rule Act says that's of 1973.
		So it allows the president to take control of D.C. police for 48 hours if he determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist.
		The 48-hour period can be extended if he notifies relevant congressional committees.
		Taking control for over 30 days must be passed into law by Congress.
		And note that that would need a 60-vote threshold in the Senate, not just a simple majority.
		Here's Stan, Florida, Independent Line.
		Good morning, Stan.
unidentified		Yeah, how are you doing?
		Good.
		Where was the National Guard on January 6th?
		He didn't call him then.
		He's just making money, selling stuff.
		Now we're going to put a $200,000 million dollar ballroom onto the White House.
		He's at it.
		More money, this bill that he's putting through is crazy.
		But he wasn't doing much on January 6th when those people were beating the hell out of those officers there.
		He didn't call the National Guard then.
		But now he wants to call the National Guard.
		And he's making money hand over fist as president with all these dinners and suing people, going after colleges, going after this people, selling watches, selling all this stuff he sells.
		His family's making millions of dollars on golf courses in foreign countries.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Got it, Stan.
		Here's Tasha, Silver Spring, Maryland, Independent Line.
		Go ahead, Tasha.
unidentified		Yes, just from my observations about everything that is going on, and good morning, by the way.
		It just seems like a joke, actually, because I actually, you know, I'm born in the Washington, D.C. area.
		I'm from here.
		And I see everything on a day-to-day basis as far as the crime rate and everything that they're actually trying to put onto the news or to make it seem to the public, but it's not what it seems.
		Something may happen right there, and there's police posted right there at the block, and they actually don't even come to the crime that actually occurred at the moment.
		There's gunshots ringing.
		No one comes up until, you know, that person is probably already deceased already.
		And everyone's like wondering what's going on, you know, why isn't there, you know, where's the police is right there, and there's still, no one's doing anything.
		So it just seems like a joke, you know, as far as, okay, now that they want to bring the, You know, the uh, you know, bring more authority into the city when all it is is just the kids that they have nothing to do here.
		You know, there's nothing.
		There's no gateway.
		There's no outage for anything else for anyone to do.
		So it's, it's, it's, you know, that's just not the way, especially for the homelessness that's going on.
		It just doesn't make sense.
		You know, for America, it just doesn't make sense.
		When we should all come together, it's just like just the separation of the world just doesn't make sense.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So what do you think is going to happen, Tasha, with the federal takeover of the police and the National Guard deployed?
unidentified		Well, seeing it again face to face is just going to anger, you know, the communities.
		It's going to anger the public because they're not going to understand what's going on.
		You know, and lack of knowledge and lack of, you know, everything.
		And here we go.
		It's going to, there's going to be uprise and there's going to be uproar of everything, you know?
		So it just sucks.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And to Garden City, Missouri, Republican Jamie, hello.
unidentified		Good morning.
		This topic is very personal to me.
		My daughter was in law enforcement for 18 years and she does security now for a company.
		She's been assaulted twice, had an AR pointed at her where she had to pull her Glock and take cover.
		This crime has gotten out of control.
		And I don't even believe we're having this conversation of, gee, do we need to clean up crime in America?
		And some people find that offensive.
		It is unbelievable to me.
		A president should keep his citizens safe.
		He should deport criminal illegals.
		We should get drugs off the street.
		And these homeless people, some of them are mentally ill.
		We need to invest in that.
		But gosh dang it, if that's my daughter on the line and the police department doesn't come and back her up, which they don't, she's the one, the go-between before the cops show up.
		And in Kansas City, they don't show up.
		They put her on hold.
		This has got to stop.
		It's going to cost our police officers their lives.
		And America, if you think that's going to divide us, the problem is you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Jamie, would you welcome the National Guard to be deployed in Garden City, where you are?
unidentified		I would.
		My son is National Guard, Lieutenant Colonel.
		I would.
		That's his job is to protect us, to keep crime away from us, to come to our defense.
		That's my daughter's job.
		That's what they do.
		They put their lives on the line and nobody's backing them up.
		And people have a problem with doing something about this.
		I don't understand it.
		I mean, my gosh, these people are putting their life on the line for us.
		Crime has gotten out of control.
		I don't care what you say.
		It has.
		I mean, every day my daughter goes to work.
		I pray to God she doesn't get shot.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Let's go to College Park, Maryland.
		Democrat Aubrey, you're on the air.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		So I live just a couple miles outside of D.C.
		I own a logistics company.
		I'm actually driving through D.C. right now, like I do every single day.
		This new crime epidemic, it's really well hidden.
		There are a lot of young women running with earbuds in at all hours of the day and night.
		A lot of people walking their dogs seem really nonplussed by the situation.
		And so I'm not really sure where all this is coming from.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So you're not seeing any crime in D.C.?
unidentified		I mean, there's crime in every city of every size in every nation of the world.
		It's really, there's nothing unusual going on here.
		There are crimes.
		There are crimes in neighborhoods where people have long-standing beefs with each other.
		There are crimes when people are playing on their phone and leave their car running and don't pay attention to what's going on around them, just like there is everywhere.
		I lived in a town of 30,000 people with a Republican mayor and a Republican county council and a Republican legislature in Florida and a Republican governor.
		And guess what?
		My car would still get broken into all the time because that's where I lived and that's the people around me.
		That's who were there.
		This is not going to do anything to get rid of homeless people.
		They've been clearing homeless in Campington, D.C. for years.
		They do it.
		There's sweeps three or four times every year where they just bulldoze hundreds of tents and push these people out into little corners of other neighborhoods.
		The people don't go away.
		What's the plan here?
		Are you going to put a bunch of homeless people in camps and haul them off?
		You're going to put them in a hospital and we'll all pay for them to be warehoused.
		What's the end game?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Aubrey.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Kenneth in Apopka, Florida, Republican.
unidentified		I'd like to go on record.
		I support President Trump's efforts 100%.
		If the political apparatus in D.C. and other cities like it were actually addressing the issues of the local people, yes, there would be crime.
		We'll never see a day that crime is totally eliminated, but we will see a time where we will have peace and there will be safety for people, which does not exist right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		That's Kenneth with the last call for this segment.
		Later on this morning in the Washington Journal, we'll continue our conversation about crime trends in DC and across the country with Jeff Asher.
		He's an expert in criminal justice data.
		But first, after the break, Kirk Beto, editor of National Hotlines, National Journal's hotline.
		He breaks down the redistricting battles to come as both parties ramp up for the 2026 midterm elections.
		We'll be right back.
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		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		We are joined by Kirk Bado, National Journal's hotline editor, to talk about the electoral landscape ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
		Kirk, welcome to the program.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Thanks for having me on.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So remind us about the hotline and the work that you do there.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, the hotline is a twice-daily political publication where a newsletter goes out at 9, 11.40 in the morning.
		And we cover races all over the map, all over the ballot, from early looking at the 2028 presidential races down to the Senate races, the off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia, the House races.
		If there's a competitive dollar race, we're covering it at the hotline.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, you said in a recent podcast that Republicans could, quote, redraw themselves into the majority a year before voters even head to the polls.
		Explain that.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, so I think before we get into the redistricting, we have to look at what the battle for the House is looking like right now.
		It's very, very narrow.
		Democrats only need to net three seats and they'll be in the majority again.
		Now, the White House is putting a lot of pressure on red states to redraw the congressional lines to favor Republicans.
		In Texas, we have a proposal right now that would shift five seats into Republicans' favor, redrawing those districts to seats that Trump carried by more than 10 points.
		In Ohio, we know that there's going to be mid-cycle redistricting there because of a legal challenge last year that has the current line set to expire before 2026.
		We don't have proposals yet in Ohio, but Republicans there are probably going to target two, maybe three seats.
		So if we look at it like that, that's eight seats now shifting towards Republicans' favor.
		That almost triples the size of Democrats' lift right now to win back the majority.
		And it's going to be increasingly difficult to win that number of seats, given how narrowly divided the House is and how partisan the whole country is.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I mean, are there eight seats out there that Democrats could win that might be in play for them?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		If the election were held today before these changes, yes, absolutely.
		There's plenty of seats right now.
		There's three seats that Republicans hold that Harris won that are the prime targets for Democrats, especially that open seat in Nebraska II and the Omaha seat.
		But with these redraw right now, that task gets so much more difficult, especially given the history of the midterms where, yes, the party in power usually loses a lot of seats, but more recently, those losses have gotten narrower and narrower.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And you say more difficult.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is it impossible?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I don't think it's impossible.
		Given the right conditions, the right circumstances right now, if the bottom falls out of Republicans, then there's a whole slew.
		There's a whole universe of districts that could be in play here.
		And there's plenty of more reached districts that aren't going to get redrawn that Democrats can target.
		My colleague James Downs, our House campaign correspondent, was writing this morning about places like Virginia won the Rob Whitman seat.
		There's some other seats as well that are just on the periphery of the battlefield that Democrats can start targeting heavily.
		But the whole calculus is going to change with about a year to go.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So Republicans have accused Democrats of doing the exact same thing in the past, that this is nothing new.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, what's new here is that it's so explicit right now from the White House.
		You have Trump in front of the White House talking about how we need five seats.
		We can get these five seats.
		We're going to get these five seats.
		Now, Democrats have, of course, been using hardison gerrymandering as well.
		Look at the Illinois map, look more locally here at the Maryland map where there's a lone Republican representative.
		What's so brazen here is that it is mid-cycle for very explicitly political purposes.
		The Constitution says that redistricting should happen about every 10 years to coincide with the census and apportionment.
		This new push to just open up the lines without any court decisions pending, without any real impetus besides just a partisan power grab here.
		That's what's new.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So what are the challenges that Democratic states are facing if they want to redraw their maps as well?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, what's interesting here is that Democrats are kind of abandoning those high-minded ideas about fairness and taking the partisanship out of the map making process.
		You know, 10 years ago, Democrats really responded to the first Trump administration with this appeal to defending Democratic institutions, small deed democracy.
		They formed the National Democratic Redistricting Committee that was supposed to try to take the partisanship out of gerrymander, out of drawing the lines.
		However, with Trump 2.0, they've tried to say, all right, we're going to go down into the trenches with Trump here.
		The problem is a lot of these states that Democrats could draw their lines in have enacted these good government reforms to make it much more difficult.
		In California, for example, where Gavin Newsom's making a lot of noise about redrawing the lines, they would have to put a ballot measure in front of voters this November if they want to change the lines for next year.
		In New York, it would require a change to the state constitution, which is really, really difficult right now.
		The barriers for Democrats are so much higher than it is for Republicans.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you'd like to join our conversation with Kirk Beto of the National Journal UCAN, the lines are Republicans 202748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000, and Independents 202-748-8002.
		Another part of the story is that President Trump has asked for a new census.
		Talk about that.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I'm still trying to wait for more details from the White House on what he means by a new census.
		Now, Trump just dropped this in a True Social Post last week.
		The officials that I've talked to are also looking for clarity as well.
		Is this a new census?
		Is this changes to the census that's going to be conducted in 2030, which is already in the early stages of coming together?
		They're already doing trainings for that.
		What's interesting is that Trump's demand for a new census coincides with a bill that Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia introduced earlier this year, also calling for a new census to exclude non-citizens and also to have it be conducted before the 2026 midterms, which is almost impossible to do.
		And it's also constitutionally not allowed.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		No, wait, wait, wait.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's go back to exclude non-citizens, also green card holders, so people here in the country legally but not American citizens.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Yes, Trump only wants to count citizens in this census, which isn't a census.
		It's a glorified survey at that point.
		The whole point of the census, as outlined in the 14th Amendment, is to get an accurate count of every resident in the United States, regardless of your legal status.
		And for those who don't know, the census is what controls the apportionment of congressional seats.
		It controls the apportionment of the Electoral College as well.
		There's massive implications here electorally.
		Trump tried to do this during his first term where he tried to add a citizenship question to the census.
		The courts strut that down.
		There wasn't a whole lot of support for it in Congress.
		And now with this new unchained Trump that we have, this really bold taking action Trump that we have in the second term, he's trying to push for it again here.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, beyond the census, what and the redistricting and all that that's happening, what's the state of play of politics going into the midterm elections?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		It's not the same type of, if we flash back to Trump 1.0, Democrats at this point were feeling pretty good about their chances in the midterms.
		There was a lot more Republican retirements.
		They kind of saw the writing on the wall.
		Democrats were vastly outperforming expectations in special elections.
		And they were about 10 points ahead in the generic ballot.
		Fast forward to Trump 2.0 now, and it's not the same type of Democratic advantage.
		They have about a three-point advantage in the generic ballot.
		Trump's approval ratings are right around where they were in the first term, maybe a little bit higher.
		The image of the Democratic Party right now is much more unfavorable than it was this time around.
		And that's going to be really difficult to overcome right now, especially with how narrowly divided Congress is.
		The Senate's going to be very difficult for Democrats given the map.
		Even though there are more Republicans up for reelection this time around, their best bet, if I was a betting man, is probably going to flip the House.
		But if you asked me that a month ago, I'd have a much different answer.
		Now that we're in this redistricting arms race, a lot is up in the air for Democrats.
unidentified		Great.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's look at some of the latest polls.
		Here's President Trump's approval rating.
		This is an average from real clear politics.
		He's at a disapproval of 51.6%, approval at 45.7%.
		How does that compare to not only his first term, but other presidents during this time?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Trump was historically unpopular at this point during his first term.
		And this is just a slight uptick of where it was at a similar point.
		But this is not where you want to be.
		You don't want to be underwater as a president here.
		And I think back to where we were about four years ago now with Joe Biden, where up until about August of his first term, his approval rating was above water.
		He had more approval than he did disapproval.
		But then after the Afghanistan pool out, his numbers inverted and never really recovered.
		We saw Trump's numbers invert a lot earlier than we have seen a lot of other modern presidents.
		It started around April during the first Liberation Day where he announced his first round of tariffs, and they've been consistently underwater since then.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, well, let's take a look at some of the details, breaking it down by topic of President Trump's approval.
		So the economy, he is at 55% disapproval.
		42% approve.
		The inflation specifically, 59% disapproval.
		That's the highest on this list.
		39% approve.
		Immigration at 52% disapproval, 45% approval.
		And foreign policy, 53% disapproval, 45% approve.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, if you look at the issue that mattered most to voters in 2024, it was the economy followed behind by about 10 points or so by immigration.
		Now, by most counts, Trump has been very successful about enacting his immigration policy.
		Border crossings are near historic lows.
		His very visible crackdowns on immigrants are exactly what he promised.
		And while the images playing out on TV have been pretty divisive, this is what he said he was going to do.
		The big thing here that's going to matter is those economy numbers.
		That's the number one issue for voters.
		If the price of goods keep going up right now, you're going to see voters take out those frustrations on the party in power, because that's what midterms usually are.
		They're a referendum on the party in power.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I want to show you another poll.
		This is from YouGov in June about congressional Republicans, and then I'll show you congressional Democrats.
		So the view of congressional Republicans, 58% have an unfavorable view, 38% have a favorable view.
		It's even worse for congressional Democrats.
		So 65% have an unfavorable view of congressional Democrats, only 30% a favorable.
		What do you make of those numbers?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		That people are really upset right now at their elected officials.
		And I think one of the defining characteristics as we go into the midterms here right now, there's a lot of issues that are up in the air right now.
		I don't think a lot of the stuff that we're talking about today are going to be the major factors in 2026.
		I don't think the Sydney Sweeney commercial, for example, is going to hold a lot of weight.
		What I think is, is whether your first name, if you're on the ballot, is congressman or not.
		I think there's a lot of dissatisfaction right now with elected officials.
		And I think one of the most dangerous.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But more than usual, because we usually have this whole throw the bums out kind of sentiment in the country.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		We do, and it's very difficult to have that type of wave election now.
		In recent election trends, the swing in either way has not been as extreme as it was even in 2018.
		But I do think that there's a real anti-incumbent streak right now.
		You've seen it play out in the New York mayor's primary as well, where Zohran Mamdani ran against the Democratic machine there.
		Now, Andrew Cuomo has his own unique set of baggage.
		But I think that type of pushing back against the political system right now that's not working, that's leaving people behind, I think that's going to be pretty pervase next year.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, let's talk to callers.
		We'll start with Rick, Columbus, Ohio, Independent Line.
		Good morning, Rick.
		Rick, are you there?
unidentified		Yes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, go right ahead.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Rick?
unidentified		Yes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, go right ahead.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're on the air.
unidentified		Okay.
		What I'd like to talk about is the federalization of the police force.
		I don't understand why Americans aren't upset about this in the sense that this gives way to a larger problem, basically moving towards a police state.
		He's already talked about moving to other cities, and this is part of his larger plan.
		These Republicans, basically, they disenfranchise.
		They want to do everything they can to disenfranchise voters so that, regardless if you vote or not, they still remain in power.
		And they're not serving people whatsoever.
		I mean, they're just the biggest crook as the crime that's being committed by people still in purses.
		They're still in money left and right now by financing all these companies that Republicans have interest in, that are part of ICE, that are part of taking over current functions that Doe just cut.
		And no one realizes that that's going on or cares about it.
		And what's even worse is, so you come in, you clear the city, where are these people going to go?
		And all these conditions that we're suffering from today, homelessness, the mentally ill on the street, no one remembers this.
		It goes all the way back to Ronald Reagan when he, because of their policies, people were not allowed to be institutionalized that needed help.
		And we're given help.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, let's get a response.
unidentified		Kirk.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I think that's the big news dominating Washington right now: Trump federalizing the city's police force and calling in the National Guard here.
		Now, he called in the National Guard during his first term to help handle the protest in 2020 that summer.
		It's been a very rapid escalation for Trump and his takeover of the D.C. police force right now.
		Now, legally, he can only do it for about 30 days without an act of Congress.
		So, we're still in the early stages of this.
		We don't know exactly what it's going to look like.
		We have about 800 or so guardsmen mobilized here right now.
		And Trump yesterday in a press conference said that he, if the problem with crime in D.C. isn't solved, which I don't know what the markers of success for that looked like, he could call in the military as well, which would be an incredible escalation to call in the U.S. military for a domestic crime issue.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Got a question for you from Jimbo in California.
		Could Mr. Beto explain the sausage-making process of gerrymandering congressional districts?
		Does it involve AI and voting role data?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, Jimbo, you mean how long you got here to talk about the sausage-making here?
		I mean, there's a lot of new technologies that are being used right now to draw these new lines.
		I'm really interested to talk to the folks behind the Texas lines and see how they went about that process here.
		But it's a lot, there is a little use of AI depending on the state, but usually it's just trying to carve up what is going to be the most advantageous district for you.
		What's interesting about Texas during their first redraw earlier this decade is that a lot of Republicans complained that it didn't go far enough with pushing Republicans' advantage because it's a state-run process.
		Instead, it was more of an incumbent protection program where you had some people grumbling, but it largely preserved the folks who were in power.
		This one's much more of a reach.
		And while those five seats that are drawn into Republicans' favor aren't slam dunks, it's looking pretty favorable for them right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to Harold in Easton, Illinois, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Harold.
unidentified		Yeah, hi, America.
		Thanks for having me on.
		I'd like to talk about the gerrymandering.
		I don't think it's good for either side.
		I think it takes away the vote from the people.
		If they're gerrymandered, they can vote however they want to for the big business, rich people, but they don't have to vote for the people that they actually represent.
		They're picking the I don't I just think that the whole electoral thing is completely messed up right now.
		It's all you have the richest people in the world taking control of our votes because they we do not lobby anymore.
		Lobbyists used to be like get 200,000 votes and you could have somebody change their mind.
		Now it's how big a check can I contribute to your campaign and I got your vote.
		I just think that we need to get rid of the gerrymandering.
		We need to get rid of Citizens United.
		We need to have government finance elections to where they're not indebted to anybody but the people that elect them.
		We need to get rid of the Electoral College.
		We need to.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		A lot of changes there, Harold.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's get a response.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, it's interesting what Harold was talking about for the most part with those changes are stuff that Democrats have put forward with HR1, their big for the people voting bill that they introduced in 2017 shortly after Trump took power the first time around.
		And part of that was to reform campaign finance.
		Part of that was to end partisan gerrymandering as well.
		And now again, when we see in Trump 2.0, we've seen Democrats largely abandon that right now.
		You have Ken Martin, the chair of the DNC, talking about how this isn't your grandfather's Democratic Party.
		We're not bringing a pen to a knife fight.
		We're bringing a knife to a knife fight.
		You have Eric Holder, the attorney general, the former attorney general, who's leading that Democratic group to take partisanship out of the gerrymandering, out of the redraw process.
		Say that, look, this is like when Germany invaded France.
		We can't sit down idly by.
		And he was trying to invoke Churchill with that, but he more sounds like Bluto from Animal House, where he's going, was it over where the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
		Democrats aren't really worried about the details because they can't really redraw these maps, but they're like, don't worry, he's on a roll right now.
		So it's really contributed to this partisan, this very, very partisan nature right now of Congress, self-sorting, this gerrymandering where compromise is now a dirty word.
		And there's so much more narrow divides in Congress and legislation doesn't get done.
		Compromise doesn't happen.
		And it really makes the whole process down.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're calling in your article, redistricting arms race leads to mutual assured destruction.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Exactly.
		And that's what I wanted to try and get at with this, where, yes, Republicans are doing this power grab right now.
		But at least for the first Trump term, Democrats try to appeal to better angels.
		They try to talk about defending small D Democratic institutions.
		And now they're in the trenches with Trump.
		And it really kind of reminds me of during the first Republican debate in 2016 during the 2016 race where Marco Rubio and the other Republicans running against Trump tried to have those high-minded approaches.
		But then Marco Rubio started to make fun of Trump's hand size as well, trying to fight fire with fire with Trump.
		And we all know how that turned out for him.
		And I feel like the Democrats are going down a similar path right now.
		And I just don't think if you're a Democrat, you don't want to be compared to Marco Rubio's 2016 political campaign right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, he is Secretary of State, so it's not that bad.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		It's not too bad for him right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to John in Washington, D.C., Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Good morning, C-SPAN listeners.
		Good morning, Americans.
		Good morning to your guests.
		I wanted to kind of focus on America's short memory and how gullible some of us Americans can be.
		Donald Trump is now taking possession, seizing the District of Columbia's police department, calling in the National Guard for what he's calling violent crimes and corruption.
		Do we forget when people stormed the Capitol and he blamed everybody for not calling in the National Guard and the police?
		I mean, what is going on with America?
		You mean to tell me that those weren't violent crimes?
		Those weren't people doing things that was illegal.
		And you mean to tell me he sat in that White House and did not call the police, did not seize the police then, did not seize the National Guard?
		Come on, America.
		We need to wake up and realize exactly what's going on.
		I'm not going to belabor the point.
		I bet you get my message.
		Thank you very much for letting me speak.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, John, morning to you as well.
		And I think what John is getting at is speaking to a larger problem here where voters across the country don't see D.C.'s issues as national issues.
		They do think that D.C. has too much crime.
		They do think that D.C. might not be a safe spot right now, even though there has been a steady downward tick in crime rate over the last few years here.
		But I think that's a problem that Democrats are tearing their hair out about as well, that voters across the country forgave Trump and forgave a lot of the Republicans who enabled what happened at January 6th and returned them to power.
		And I think that's a frustration that you hear a lot of Democrats' voice.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You talked about how inflation will be a big topic for the midterm elections.
		What about the One Big Beautiful bill, Medicaid cuts, anything like that?
		Do you expect that to be a big issue?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I expect that to be a big issue as well.
		And that kind of ties up into people's personal economy as well in healthcare.
		Again, Democrats rode running against Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2018 to the blue wave in Trump's first term, which I don't think there are enough seats to have a blue wave this time around, but they're looking for a similar playbook where they're running against the Republicans who voted to those cuts to Medicaid.
		And what you're seeing right now during August recess is a lot of Republicans who are having events in districts or in the states are getting some fierce pushback from frustrated voters.
		Last week, it was Nebraska rep Mike Flood who made headlines for having to pause his town hall and be like, hey, everyone, we need to calm down here right now.
		I'm getting heckled a little too much.
		If we want to continue this evening, let's do it in an orderly fashion here.
		There's a lot other, there are a lot more town hall events over the next few weeks here before Republicans, before Congress comes back in September, and we're going to be watching those pretty closely.
		It reminds me a lot of the frustrations that we saw during the Tea Party midterms in 2010 when Democrats were getting heckled in their districts.
		Same thing in 2018 as well when Republicans were getting heckled in their districts.
		Again, I don't think the swing is going to be as big, but the breadcrumbs are there, that voters are very frustrated.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How are voters reacting to Democratic lawmakers?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Are they holding town halls and what's the reaction there?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		They're holding a lot more town halls than Republicans, I'll tell you that much.
		Republicans have been given instructions by their leaderships and suggestions to maybe go to virtual town halls, teletown halls to avoid some of these big displays of protest here.
		Democrats are trying to take advantage of that.
		And a Republican in a swing district isn't going to hold an in-person event, then Democrats are going to go there and hold their own in-person event.
		What Democrats are facing right now from their constituents, especially in bluer districts, is frustration that they're not pushing back hard enough right now on Republicans and on Trump.
		The problem is, again, Ken Martin likes to talk, or Eric Holder likes, or Ken Martin likes to talk about how they're bringing a knife to a knife fight right now.
		The problem, like I was writing about earlier this week, is that they've really disarmed themselves in the redistricting battles.
		There's not a whole lot they can do in Congress right now, but they are trying to find more visible ways to resist Republicans.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to Tina in New Jersey, Republican line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Tina.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		And I'm happy that you took my call.
		Thank you.
		This call is actually against, and making the comment against the Democratic voters, the people that call in to C-SPAN.
		And I hope that they're listening right now.
		The fact remains that they have so much, the Democrats, the voters, they have so much hatred in their head and in their mind that anything that President Trump does that is good, okay, they are against it because they hate him.
		They don't care of what he's doing, and he's doing a fantastic job for America.
		Now, listen up, you Democrats, okay?
		Take the hatred out of your minds, okay, and come to the fact that what is happening is a good thing, okay?
		What Biden did and Harris did, okay, to this country is a disgrace.
		And the Democrats know it.
		They are demonized.
		They will continue to be demonized, okay?
		And their minds are not on what is happening in this country.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Any comment?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I think what she's voicing is the common Republican complaint that Democrats are focusing too much on the negative of Trump and not seeing the good in the Trump derangement system that you hear Republicans talk about a lot.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to Cynthia in Cleveland, Ohio, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hey, Cynthia.
unidentified		Hello.
		I think that when you see the disapproval numbers on the Democrat side, they're just trying to urge their representatives to try to do more and to try to fight fire with fire more instead of we keep playing within the rules.
		And they have abandoned all rules, starting with the president.
		He doesn't follow law.
		He doesn't follow rules.
		He doesn't follow court things.
		So that's different than when you see the Republican approval numbers going down.
		Those are moderate to conservative Republicans who are leaving the Republican Party.
		So that's the difference.
		These Democrats are not leaving the Democratic Party.
		They're just frustrated that the Democrats aren't really presenting a clear plan.
		Now they're being very active.
		I'm proud of the Democrats, what they have been able to do, given the fact that we have a dictator.
		This is martial law we're seeing on our streets of our cities.
		They're going against the people who were elected by the people, mayors, congressmen.
		They're going over those.
		You're powerless now.
		Even attorneys and judges, your title is not going to mean anything if this man continues in power.
		He's taking lessons from dictators.
		He's handing Ukraine to Putin.
		He's handing Gaza over to Netanyahu.
		His first term was dictator 101.
		Now he's in graduate school.
		Okay.
		And this is practice.
		The reason he's doing martial law is so that he can take over the elections again.
		That's what he's going to do.
		Wake up, people.
		Okay.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, I think what the caller there is talking a lot about is the frustrations that voters, that Democratic voters have that their representatives aren't just doing enough to resist Trump right now because they see it as an existential threat right now.
		The problem, I think, for Democrats is that they've been running as Trump as an existential threat for almost 10 years now.
		And unless you are a more base-centric Democratic voter, it's kind of running on a little bit of deaf ears right now to swing voters and independent voters.
		And that's why I think you see a lot of the approval ratings that we talked about earlier so low for Democrats.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		We are in August recess.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		They come back in September after Labor Day, and then the government runs out of funding September 30th.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What happens in the three weeks that you've got?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		A lot of deal-making and a lot of late nights for the congressional reporters right now running around.
		It's going to be another drag-em-out fight right now.
		And again, to relate it back to what we were talking about earlier with gerrymandering and the very narrow divides in Congress, Republicans only have about a three-seat majority right now.
		And that's the reason they can't get a whole lot done is because they don't have any room for error right now.
		There's a lot of factions within the Republican Party.
		There's no compromise that the Democrats are going to offer right now because they're more worried about their primary voters.
		It is going to be another drag them out fight.
		It is going to be another lot of late nights, and it's going to probably be, if I was to venture, yes, a last-minute funding deal that keeps it at the current levels.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But when you say they can't get a whole lot done, they are getting things done.
		I mean, the one big beautiful bill did pass.
		I mean, Speaker Johnson has been surprising a lot of pundits who are saying that he can't get it done during this time or he'll have to change things.
		He's not.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		He has been efficient at carrying out the president's agenda.
		Trump has his back all the way.
		He's 100% a Trump guy.
		And I think that is more the key to Johnson's success than anything else.
		I think him not being Kevin McCarthy, being someone who was not in leadership.
		Now, I think he's great at making relationships.
		I think he's great at balancing the different needs of his diverse conference.
		But having Trump as your enforcer in your back pocket is a pretty powerful tool in Republican politics.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Anna in North Carolina, Republican Lion.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		Good morning, Kurt.
		Sorry, I have a cold.
		But I just had a question.
		First of all, Mimi, please, would they say that January 6th that Trump did not send in the National Guard?
		Please explain that Pelosi and the sergeant-at-arms denied them to come in.
		That just really bothers me.
		And the 34 felonies against Trump, they were overturned, and now they've got to pay back the money to him.
		So he's not a convicted felon.
		What I want to know is when the Democrats speak of President Trump, it is nothing but hate-filled.
		Honest to goodness, I see these people on TikTok, and they're asking for horrible things to happen.
		What kind of message can the Democrats start maybe sending out that kind of tones down that narrative?
		I mean, I never heard of Republicans saying such vile things, and I think that's kind of destroying our country with the hatred that the Democrats literally have for the president of the United States.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You never heard Republicans saying vile things and negative things about Biden when he was in office?
unidentified		Not like what I'm hearing and seeing.
		I mean, this is very dangerous.
		And if we, if the Republican had said that, you know, they would have been knocking on our door under the Biden administration.
		But, you know.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's get Kirk to respond.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I think Nean does have a point there that there's a lot of heated rhetoric right now.
		In fact, last year, the United States Capitol Police Service invested a record number of threats against lawmakers, against their staff, and against their families.
		Already this year, we've seen a spade of really concerning political violence from the attacks on lawmakers in Minnesota to Josh Shapiro's house, the governor of Pennsylvania, was firebombed after a guy got through the fence there.
		There's real concerns that this year is going to see another spike in political violence right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And that political violence is on both sides?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I do think it is.
		I hate to, you know, both sides this right now, but the rhetoric from both sides right now is pretty concerning.
		Now, Trump has a bigger megaphone than probably any other politician in America, probably in the whole world right now.
		And I think if he were to try to take the temperature down, which is difficult for him to do, I think that would go a long way in trying to calm down this situation right now.
		But we've been talking to experts.
		There's been studies done at the University of Princeton that show that the concerns of political violence are at an all-time high right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		John in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Democrat, good morning, John.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		Yeah, when you hear people talking about the Biden administration, you had Moody's, or you had Mark Elizandi on there from Moody's Analytics, and he indicated that the economy was the best in 35 years.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're breaking up, John.
		You still there?
		Looks like we lost John.
		You could try to call back if you would like, but he was talking about the Biden economy.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		And I think one of the Biden economy, what he would talk about on the campaign trail is that he inherited a struggling economy from Trump and turned it around.
		Trump is now trying to claim that all the gains in the economy right now are from his administration.
		And I think that with how heavy-handed he is right now with enacting the tariffs, with how he is really trying to make a more command economy run from the White House, that unlike his predecessors who have a little bit more of a transition period to where they can start owning the economy and owning the jobs numbers, this is all Trump's right now.
		And I'm very curious to see how it plays out over the next few months here.
		We have two big events, which I'm looking at for consumer sentiment.
		It's the back-to-school shopping that's about to start happening and then holiday shopping as well.
		If we see rises in spending there, if we see soaring consumer sentiment, I think Trump and Republicans might be on the right track.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Here's Mark, Ocean City, Maryland, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I've got a question for Kirk.
		Earlier, he said that the intention regarding Jan, not gerrymandering, the intention was that the districts can be withdrawn, redrawn once a decade to coincide with census data.
		So when you're saying that that's the intention, are you also saying that Democrats have never done it otherwise?
		Because I feel like I'm hearing half-truths when you say that, well, that's the intention and the Republicans are guilty of doing this now.
		But are you saying also that Democrats never have?
darrel rundus ▲ ● ▼		Because maybe I could be persuaded to go along with you on that.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I appreciate the question.
		I'm not saying that Democrats don't gerrymander.
		I mean, again, look at Illinois.
		Look at where you are in Maryland right now.
		You're in Ocean City over along the Eastern Shore there.
		That's the only Republican district in the state.
		What I'm saying is that this very blatant power grab of mid-cycle redistricting kind of out of the ether right now, that's the part that I'm trying to draw attention to right now.
		Democratic states have redrawn out lines outside of the mid-cycle, outside of the every 10 years redraw as well, mostly though due to court orders.
		What we've seen the vast majority of redraws happen is because of what's going on in the courts, where a district, where a state map has been deemed illegal or it runs afoul of the Voting Rights Act.
		Those are the typical type of redraws that we've seen.
		But mid-cycle redistricting now, for more partisan purposes, is becoming a lot more standard.
		I think it's a worrying trend.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to Delia, who is in New York City, Line for Democrats.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Morning, Mimi.
		Good morning, everyone.
		I want to say yesterday I watched the press conference with President Trump.
		And let me just say I'm a Christian.
		I'm an African-American woman.
		And I'm a Democrat.
		And I'm not leaving my party, although I will say that I did vote for President Trump in this last election.
		And by the way, I did not vote for Obama because of what I saw that happened to Hillary.
		I thought that was disgusting, particularly after all the Clintons had done, you know, not just for the country, but particularly for African Americans.
		I want to say that I live in New York City.
		I live in Harlem.
		Right now, physically, I'm in New Jersey because of what's going on in New York.
		I was so glad to see that press conference yesterday to see that they're finally going to do something about the crime, you know, period across the board.
		They were talking about what was going on in D.C.
		I, you know, I pray that they do something about what's going on in New York, which is why right now I'm in Jersey.
		And let me just say, I'm looking at the crime, and let me just say about D.C., the crime in there is really bad.
		So them saying that the numbers went down.
		Yeah.
		Yeah, okay.
		Yeah, they went down.
		But when you think about how bad the crime has been in D.C. all these years, it really did, it's not making a dent.
		And when you hear the stories of what's going on in D.C., you know, it's staggering.
		Of course, I had to do something about that.
		I pray they do something about what's going on in New York.
		They've got this candidate, Mehmet Ma'm.
		Mam Donnie.
		Mamdani, thank you, dear, that's running who's saying defund the police.
		He's talking about socialism.
		He's talking about all of these things that's just going to continue.
		And I'm sorry, I have to say it.
		What Eric Adams started, whether he wants to change or not.
		I'm not really moved by that.
		I didn't vote for him either.
		And why?
		Because there's a pattern that seems to be going on here that no one really wanted to address.
		And I'm praying, you know, which is why I voted for President Trump because he is not just saying, but he is doing something about what's going on.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Delia.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Kirk.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, I think, first off, I'd love her contact info.
		I have a lot of follow-up questions for her and her voting patterns.
		But what I think is really interesting there is that she's really hitting on a very salient talking point and very salient messaging strategy from Republicans that they've been riding and really been reaping a lot of success with since 2022, which is making cities safe, making you feel safe, making not just, you know, you feel safe when you go outside your home, but making your money safe.
		And yes, I think she does have a point that, yes, D.C. crime is going down, but it's not like it's no crime here at all.
		You and I both live here.
		I walked over to the studio today.
		There have been times where it's been a little concerning being out and about.
		But I think that's what Trump and Republicans are banking on right now, that these heavy-handed actions right now, yes, they're in escalation.
		Yes, they are very unprecedented.
		But the voters who put them in office wanted unconventional approaches to these problems right now.
		And again, we're in the day two of Trump's seizure of the D.C. police right now.
		We'll see how it plays out.
		We'll see if it happens in other cities as well.
		But Republicans are banking on the, they want voters want them to go big, and they're going to go bait.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And she also mentioned that, you know, President Trump is, at least he's doing something.
		Right.
		And how big of a sentiment is that among voters that President Trump does a lot?
		I mean, as a reporter, you know how many things that this administration has been doing in just six and a half months.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Well, it's so interesting.
		You know, I do remember the days being a reporter in the pre-Trump era right now.
		And it's been fascinating to see how Trump is just the sun through which all politics orbits around.
		It doesn't matter if it's on the international stage.
		It doesn't matter if it's a race for a local school board.
		Trump is everywhere.
		Trump is the main story almost in entertainment, in politics, in almost every major news aspect right now.
		And he does that because he's so action-oriented.
		He is a guy who can, you know, he's like Zeus hurling thunderbolts from Mount Olympus with his true social posts where he can call for a new census like what we talked about earlier.
		He can hire and fire people.
		He can declare an international peace agreement or something like that with just a few taps on his phone.
		And it's fascinating to see how that resonates so much with voters who want to see this type of action, who want to see him take these bold strokes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Lisa is in Alexandria, Virginia, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Lisa.
unidentified		Hi.
		I'm calling because I want to say this to Democrats on crime.
		We are tired of our Democrat cities saying gun buybacks annually.
		And every time there's a crime in our community, we have this outbreak of we shall overcome moments.
		You know, we're just a little tired of it.
		And then the second thing is housing.
		Something has to be done.
		Democrats have tents all across this country thinking that's a solution.
		And if they're not putting them in tents, they're housing them in our community centers.
		And then they complain that there's nowhere for the kids to go.
		Who wants to send their kid to a community center where homeless people have slept in the night before?
		So Democrats, get it together if you want people to start that voting Democrat.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		What's interesting is that callers from Virginia where there is actually an off-year election here, a gubernatorial election, which is usually seen as a referendum on the party in power in Washington here.
		Now, if voters like her are just as frustrated that Democrats aren't doing a whole lot right now, they have an opportunity to do that at the ballot box here.
		The problem for Republicans there is that their candidate, Lieutenant Governor, Winsom Earl Sears, has been struggling to find a coherent message there.
		She's been struggling to consolidate that type of Trump support and also more moderate Republican support as well.
		Abigail Spamberger, the Democratic nominee there, has been running a pretty centrist message.
		She's focusing a lot on the layoffs going on right now in the federal government that's impacting Virginia's economy.
		She's been talking a lot about the housing too.
		So I think that if we want to see how voters can channel that frustration that she's talking about, watch Virginia here in the next few weeks.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		She didn't mention crime.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Have congressional Democrats found a coherent message on crime?
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I think they're doing a lot better than they were a few years ago, but I don't think they necessarily have found the winning message yet.
		You saw Republicans really seize on that message in 2020 and 2022, talking about how Democrats were for defunding the police.
		In fact, Abigail Spamberger, when she was in Congress, was leading the charge within the Democratic caucus of we need to respond more forcefully to this.
		What you saw in subsequent elections and subsequent races is Democrats aligning themselves more with law enforcement.
		You saw sheriffs appear in their TV ads.
		You saw them kind of stiff arm any notion of defunding the police right now.
		And I think that's been their best mode of operation right now.
		And I think it's been very telling that you haven't seen this mass condemnation of Trump's move to federalize the police in D.C. from Democrats, where they can acknowledge that crime is high, but maybe this isn't the right tactic right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		One more call, Antonio and Findlay, Ohio Independent Line.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		How are y'all?
		Good.
		I just want to go on here as a true, I'd say independent.
		You know, I see a lot of people on this big, almost called a tug of war type thing of people doing the one-sided coin here and there.
		You know, you have the whole let's go brain phase.
		Then you have the whole, you know, great big orange monster doing this whole thing.
		There are true problems in a lot of communities that are having right now.
		And people just, you know, overall just truly just not focusing on the true problems at hand.
		And I feel like, you know, when they get on here and they say, you know, the whole demons of Republicans and the whole bands of Democrats, it's truly saddening to see people just truly going off ways.
		I understand moral characters and opinions go on there 100%, but sometimes it's just very sad seeing people doing that back and forth on that, not having a true, true center for the American people and going from there.
		And that's just what I want to say.
		And God bless everyone and everyone just getting back together.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		I appreciate that comment because I think it's kind of the issue that Democrats have right now with responding to Trump, where do they chase the news of the day here?
		Do they go after, hey, where are the Epstein files?
		Or, hey, why are we talking so much about the Sydney Sweeney Gene ad here?
		Where the divide with them is, how are we going to make solutions for everyday Americans?
		And I think that's kind of the big divide with Democrats right now: do we chase the Trump news cycle or do we try to make our own weather?
		The problem is Trump is such a big weather system, it's hard not to get swept up in it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		It's the editor of National Journal's hotline, Kirk Beto.
		You can find his work at nationaljournal.com/slash hotline.
		Thanks so much for joining us.
kirk bado ▲ ● ▼		Thanks for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		In about 30 minutes, a conversation about crime trends in DC and across the country with Jeff Asher.
		He's an expert in criminal justice data.
		But first, after the break, it's open forum.
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mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		It is Open Forum, and we will take your calls shortly.
		First, take a look at what President Trump said yesterday at the press conference about his meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin later this week in a potential land for peace deal with Ukraine.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Because there'll be some land swapping going on.
		I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody to the good for the good of Ukraine.
		Good stuff, not bad stuff.
		Also, some bad stuff for both.
		It's as good and as bad.
		But it's very complex because you have lines that are very uneven.
		And there'll be some swapping.
		There'll be some changes in land.
		And the word that they will use is, you know, they make changes.
		We're going to change the lines, the battle lines.
		Russia's occupied a big portion of Ukraine.
		They've occupied some very prime territory.
		We're going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine.
		But they've taken some very prime territory.
		They've taken largely ocean.
		You know, in real estate, we call it ocean front property.
		That's always the most valuable property.
		If you're in a lake, a river, or an ocean, it's always the best property.
		Well, Ukraine, a lot of people don't know that Ukraine was largely a thousand miles of ocean.
		That's gone.
		Other than one small area, Odessa, it's a small area.
		There's just a little bit of water left.
		So I'm going to go and see the parameters.
		Now, I may leave and say good luck, and that'll be the end.
		I may say this is not going to be settled.
		I mean, there are those that believe that Putin wanted all of Ukraine.
		I happen to be one of them, by the way.
		I think if it weren't for me, he would not be even talking to anybody else right now.
		But I'm going to meet with him.
		We're going to see what the parameters are.
		I'm then going to call up President Zelensky and the European leaders right after the meeting, yeah.
		And I'm going to tell them what kind of a deal.
		I'm not going to make a deal.
		It's not up to me to make a deal.
		I think a deal should be made for both.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And just to let you know that we will be going to a House pro forma session in about seven minutes, so right at nine o'clock Eastern time.
		It'll be very quick, and we'll come right back to open forum.
		Here is Roger in Florida, Independent Line.
		Hello, Roger.
unidentified		Good morning.
		So I wanted to talk about chance yesterday.
		We were talking about the elections, poll workers.
		I was a poll worker in Virginia.
		I'm now retired.
		I'm in Florida.
		Poll workers go through training, take online classes, come to a class, and work very long hours, and there is no people that do things that are trying to be under the table.
		And so the poll workers are very qualified people, and I think people should volunteer and get an understanding of how the system works.
		And the other point I wanted to make on Independent, speaking about the DC crime wave, I'm not sure that we have a martial law because a couple of doge and people working at the Capitol were murdered.
		Now we have martial law.
		During the War of 1812, Jackson declared martial law, and Lincoln declared martial law for the Civil War.
		But now we have a war based on the Epstein files.
		So we have to pay attention to what's going on, and hopefully we will not be heading down the road to autocrat and dictatorship running our country.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Roger mentioned the Epstein files.
		The news regarding that from ABC News, Judge rejects Trump administration's request to unseal grand jury testimony in Ghelane Maxwell case.
		It says Maxwell is serving time for sex trafficking related to the late Jeffrey Epstein.
		Here's Mick Shawnee, Kansas, Democrat.
		Hi, Mick.
		Mick, are you there?
unidentified		Yes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yep, go right ahead.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're on the air.
unidentified		Well, I'm calling to make the point that Trump got 28 point something percent of the vote of those of eligible voting age who are citizens, and Kamala got about not quite a point less.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So 28%?
unidentified		28-point-something percent.
		And Kamala got 27-point-something percent of the vote of those of voting age who are citizens.
		So this notion that there's a mandate Is uh ridiculous.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Kirk in Cleveland, Ohio, Republican line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi, how are you doing?
		Okay, as far as Washington, D.C. goes, I think the Democrats have went too far on allowing people to stay on the streets and panhandle on the streets and then way far in the justice system.
		I mean, convict somebody of a crime if you're lucky enough to convict them with Democratic judges and stuff, and then they don't even put them in jail.
		And chances are, most of the time when they commit a crime, they're out before the police officers back out there after he has to do all the paperwork.
		It's about time that they start cleaning up our city so you can walk down there and visit their tourists there.
		And that's just my feeling.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		David in Florida, Independent Line, good morning.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		First thing I'd like to say is the young lady who spoke on Israel and Hamas, I think she was from the Quincy Institute.
		I think she did a very good job yesterday.
		She really did her homework.
		A lot of people don't want to hear it, but she had the facts, I think, very, very equal and very fair.
		That's my comment.
		Thanks a lot for taking it.
		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here's Teresa in Ohio, Line for Democrats.
unidentified		Yes.
		I would like to state that if everyone would just fact check Donald Trump whenever he says anything, he claims to everything is always, he did this, he improved that.
		But when he came in, the Obama-Biden administration had a good economy, good status.
		He brought it all down.
		He claims that they brought it down.
		And he takes credit for things that the other administrations have done.
		And he always has criticized everyone.
		He's brought all the evil into chaos.
		Everybody should fact check him.
		He stands there and just spouts stuff off the top of his head with no facts behind anything.
		He says numbers that are incorrect, and he just goes on and on and on until it's just like repetition.
		People start believing the things he says are not true.
		And no president has ever been so dishonorable.
		And you're supposed to honor each other.

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