Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington D.C. was a “stunt.”
Partial transcript as follows:
KRISTEN WELKER: Let me ask you about what is unfolding here in the nation’s capital. Federal troops patrolling the Capitol under what President Trump has called a crime crackdown. Republicans, as you know, have long tried to brand Democrats as being soft on crime. If you look at the polls, actually, Republicans get higher numbers when it comes to the public trusting them to be tough on crime. Do you think, and what is your message to people in the Capitol and elsewhere who buy into this argument that President Trump is making that these cities are unsafe, in part because of Democratic policies?
MURPHY: Well, first, let’s just look at the actual numbers. In Washington, D.C. and all across the country crime was going up during Donald Trump’s first term. And when Joe Biden became president crime started to come down. In fact, it’s been coming down precipitously in Washington and in cities all across the country. So it’s just not true the allegation that they are making. What’s happening here in Washington, D.C. is just a stunt. Donald Trump didn’t like the fact that the walls were closing in on him, that his own base was questioning why he wouldn’t release the Epstein files, why he was protecting very powerful people. He didn’t want to talk anymore about the fact that our health care system is about to collapse because of the cuts that they have made, that premiums are going to go up by 75% on Americans. And so true to form, he just decided to create a new news cycle. Nothing different is really happening in the United States capital today. Crime will continue to go down whether or not there are U.S. troops to your National Guard troops here. He’s just trying to distract from the stories he doesn’t want Americans to be talking about.
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