White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields in an interview with Newsmax on Friday defended the Trump administration's takeover of the Washington, D.C. police force and the deployment of the National Guard as needed to address the "devastating reality" of the situation in the nation's capital.
President Donald Trump on Monday issued an executive order federalizing the Washington, D.C. police force and deploying the National Guard to crack down on crime. Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a press conference that the order was "unsettling" and defended her administration's work to reduce crime in the city, which she noted has fallen dramatically since it spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fields said on Newsmax's "National Report" that despite falling crime rates in Washington, D.C. over the last few years, the city still has a higher homicide rate than other major world capitals.
"There's no denying the fact that if you look at other world capitals, Washington, D.C, the capital of the greatest nation in the entire world, the United States of America, unfortunately, the D.C. crime rate completely topples that of other countries."
He added, "It's a devastating reality that this president is now facing."
Fields went on to hit at Bowser, criticizing her for trying "to champion the decrease in crime rate, that's like championing going from a grade of an F to a grade of a D. Last time I checked, that's still failing in our schools. So we should not be championing this so-called decrease in crime."
He said, "When you walk the streets and you're witnessing the crime for itself, you're seeing people O.D. from fentanyl, you're seeing car thefts, you're seeing burglaries, and the victims are the ones that are getting lost here."
Fields also blamed the "D.C. Council that is prioritizing criminals and leaving victims to fend for themselves."
He said, "This president, this attorney general, this D.C. Attorney, Judge Jeanine Pirro, has said enough is enough. We need to let cops be cops, enough babysitting our streets, allow them to patrol, allow them to arrest and allow the judges to prosecute these people and send them behind bars for a while to answer for their crimes. Enough is enough."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.