Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told Fox News that he doesn’t wear a seat belt when he’s driving in Washington, D.C. so he can act more swiftly if he gets carjacked.
Said Mullin: “I’m not joking when I say this. I drive around in Washington, D.C. in my Jeep and, yes, I do drive myself. And I don’t buckle up. And the reason why I don’t buckle up, and people can say whatever they want to, they can raise their eyebrows at me, again, is because of carjacking.”
“A former Republican candidate for a State House seat in New Mexico was sentenced to 80 years in prison on Wednesday for orchestrating a politically motivated shooting spree against four Democratic officials,” the New York Times reports.
“The series of shootings happened in December 2022 and early January 2023, weeks after the candidate, Solomon Peña, had lost his race. When Mr. Peña, 42, was arrested in January 2023, the authorities said he had paid four men in cash to shoot at the homes of certain Democratic officials, including a county commissioner and a state senator.”
Washington Post: “A day after President Donald Trump said he would deploy the National Guard in the nation’s capital, federalized the local police department and issued officers a far-reaching mandate to ‘do whatever the hell they want’ to curb crime, it remained unclear what new directives, if any, D.C. police would receive from their new federal managers.”
“District officials said they were still in command of the department, operating as usual having received no new orders from the Trump administration.”
The Bulwark: “We’re already seeing at least one immediate effect: A surge of federal officers loitering around with too much time on their hands.”
“Crime stats in big blue cities are fake. The real rates of crime, chaos and dysfunction are orders of magnitude higher.”
— White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, on X.
A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that anti-government activist Ammon Bundy cannot discharge a $52 million civil court judgment through declaring bankruptcy, Boise State Public Radio reports.
South Carolina state Rep. RJ May (R), who is in jail awaiting trial on charges he distributed sexual abuse material involving children, has resigned his seat, the Washington Post reports.
The three-term lawmaker is accused of using the screen name “joebidennnn69” to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts.
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Paul Krugman: “Ever since that latest weak jobs report, Trump has been frantically trying to convince the American public that the economy is doing great. He is failing, and predictably so. Experience shows that trying to talk up the economy when people don’t perceive it as good never works, even if the data are favorable. It’s even less likely to work when the data actually aren’t good, and calling people who point out economic weakness BUMs isn’t likely to help.”
“On the other hand, telling people things are bad even when they’re actually good can work. This is sometimes true when it comes to the economy. It’s definitely true when we’re talking about crime.”
President Trump’s takeover of the Washington, D.C. police is part of a fight that highlights the growing urban-rural political divide, and plays well to his base, the Washington Post reports.
However, Axios reports there aren’t “concrete plans” for Trump to replicate his D.C. plan in other cities.
“It is Trump’s go-to parlor trick to torque up the base, change subjects and bait Democrats to argue that crime and homelessness are not problems when many living in those communities and beyond, believe they are. So the challenge is to call it out for what it is without dismissing the legitimate concerns people have.”
— David Axelrod, quoted by Politico, on President Trump’s takeover of D.C. police.
Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump is famously reluctant to commit troops abroad but salivates at the prospect of using them against Americans at home. That is the context in which one must understand his takeover of the Washington, D.C., police force; his deployment of the National Guard; and his threats to occupy other cities.”
“Trump claims that he is acting to quell a spike in violent crime. And although he might very well feel sincere concern about crime, this does not explain his actions any more than concern about fentanyl smuggling (which he no doubt also genuinely opposes) motivates his trade restrictions against Canada.”
“The most obvious reason for skepticism about Trump’s desire to fight crime is that he is the most pro-criminal president in American history.”
“House Republicans moved quickly Monday to follow President Donald Trump’s lead as he took unprecedented action to target Washington’s locally elected government — further heightening the GOP’s scrutiny of the capital city and its Democratic elected leaders,” Politico reports.
Asha Rangappa: “I wish I could say that I think the Bureau can make it through this, as it has other crises and low points in its history. Unfortunately, I’m sorry to say that I don’t think it will, at least in its current form. In fact, precisely because of the ethics and professionalism and independence of the existing cadre of FBI agents, I think that the ones who don’t get fired will quickly leave, because the vetting process ensures that they are people who value their integrity over most anything else.”
“In short, what we are witnessing is the FBI morphing, 117 years later, into the kind of nightmare national police force that Congress and the public feared the Bureau could turn into when it was first created in 1908, and which Director Webster and every other director made their mission not to let happen.”
“The U.S. military is preparing to activate hundreds of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., according to a U.S. official, following President Trump’s threats of a federal takeover of the nation’s capital,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“A federal judge in New York on Monday rejected a request by the Justice Department to unseal grand jury transcripts related to the criminal investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted procurer for notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” CNBC reports.
“The Justice Department sought the unsealing of grand jury material related to Maxwell and Epstein after harsh criticism of the Trump administration’s decision not to publicly release the investigative file on Epstein.”
“The FBI has taken the unusual step of dispatching as many as 120 of its agents to help local law enforcement prevent carjackings and violent crime in Washington, as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the nation’s capital,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump, who plans a news conference at the White House on Monday on this topic, compared the forthcoming action against D.C. crime to his administration’s aggressive crackdown against illegal immigration at the southern border, saying on Sunday that he plans to ‘immediately clear out the city’s homeless population and take swift action against crime.’”
“President Donald Trump said a press conference will be held at the White House on Monday to address the crime in Washington, D.C.,” Reuters reports.
“Trump said on August 6 he may use the National Guard to police the streets of Washington, D.C., the latest threat by the administration toward taking over the running the city that serves as the seat of the U.S. government.”
For members: The Great Crime Paradox
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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