Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said President Donald Trump’s federal crackdown on crime in Washington D.C. was “a total abuse of power.”
Van Hollen said, “All of this is a total abuse of power. It’s a manufactured emergency. If you wanted to see an emergency in Washington, D.C., that was back on January 6, 2021, which President Trump did not thing to deploy the National Guard on time. Here, obviously, D.C. can do more to reduce violent crime, as we can across the country. But as you pointed out, crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low and a downward trajectory. So, this is all an opportunity for Donald Trump to play dictator in Washington, D.C. Instead, he should be releasing, along with the House Republicans, the one billion dollars in money that belongs to the people of D.C. that they’re holding that D.C. could use to hire more police.”
Host Martha Raddatz said, “Well let’s talk about that. You call this power grab that this is a move of a dictator. But the way the law is written, it appears he has the legal authority. And Mayor Bowser conceded that. So, what is the abuse of power here?”
Van Hollen said, “The abuse of power is claiming that this is an emergency. And everybody who is watching what happens knows that this is not an emergency in Washington, D.C. So, he is using this technical provision in the law, but I would argue clearly, he’s abusing it to manufacture this — this emergency. And now he has 30 days in which he can act. At that time, of course, in order to continue to act, he needs Congress to extend it.”
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