America's Talking - Trump Declares ‘Liberation Day’ in D.C., Calls in National Guard

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

(The Center Square) – “Liberation Day” arrived Monday in Washington, D.C., as declared by President Donald Trump. The president declared a crime emergency in the district and said the National Guard will soon patrol the streets in an effort to curb crime. Flanked by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll and U.S. Attorney of the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, the president announced that he is invoking the D.C. Home Rule Act to take federal control of Metropolitan Police Department while deploying the National Guard, with threats more military could be called in to assist.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxx Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_3c536cf9-3612-4652-a12c-23f66a96ef33.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Andrew Rice, a reporter with the Center Square, and today I'm joined by Sarah Roderick Fitch, D.C. Bureau Chief at the Center Square. Hey, Sarah, how are you doing? Good. How are you? I'm doing great. Let's get into it. On Monday, President Donald Trump issued an order to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department and ordered 800 National Guard members to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C. Sarah was in the briefing room when President Trump made the announcement. So Sarah, how did President Trump's decision to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department come about?

It's been coming for a long time, actually, since he took office for the second time. He has been making remarks about, he's been commenting about the status of the city. And it's sort of what he's saying is sort of like it's decay. And what he's seen is not just with crime, but also infrastructure. And he is noted with foreign leaders when they come here, hey, it doesn't look. look great. He compared it on Monday to, which I thought was a really kind of an interesting analogy,

was to, basically, if his father told him, if you go to a restaurant in the front door, if the restaurant is dirty, you can be pretty much guaranteed that the kitchen is dirty. And so he's kind of, he said, hey, this is basically what Washington, D.C. is. So people come

here, they see this. Washington, D.C. is the front door of United States. And he wants to clean up. But crime has been an issue. And it's been ongoing. And in fact, in February, Senator Mike Lee of Utah introduced the basically to act to rescind the Home Rule Act, which would, which gives D.C. It's autonomy.

It's been in place since the 1970s, which gives us mayor, gives us the city council, gives it a little bit more representation. And so anyway, but it kind of came from the fact that there's just been, they're claiming a lot of corruption and crime. Crime has been a major issue in the district. Even some congressmen, congressmen, some secret service agents have been victims of it, carjacking, everything. So this is, this is, it's been, it's been a long time coming, actually. So how have DC locals and local politicians responded in the wake of the president's order? So that's interesting because there's been this sort of re,

reignited the push for DC statehood for sort of the DC folks. So they have wanted to now, so like the mayor has pushed, she's using this opportunity to push for to make DC the 51st state. And there's this, there's all these protests to say sort of free DC and everything else. And so that's ongoing. And it's, it's kind of interesting. So I think that there is, so that's sort of come about. So they don't, they don't want this federal control. And it sort of highlighted, hey, D.C. only has, only has, like, limited control. And it's true. And even the mayor acknowledged Monday afternoon, she made comments. And so she said that. She said, hey, this is, there's limited control. So she's like, this is our opportunity. So it's like her kind of her argument,

as well as Eleanor Holmes, Norton, who is D.C. representative. And she has also, So she's been going on about it for a long time. So, but D.C. residents, interestingly, though, they have been actually, they were pulled by the Washington Post. They see crime as a major issue. I mean, this is actually a very serious issue. So it's sort of, there is, there's a little bit of a break. I think that they would, a lot of D.C. There's D.C. residents who've been here for a long time.

Yes, would like, you know, that they want that autonomy. They want that. But they also acknowledge there's a huge problem in the city. And it's been ongoing. So I think there's just, it's a lot of mixed sort of feelings. I think that people who are maybe not as impacted by the crime are kind of like, well, we just, we want to push for, you know, we want to push for, you know, statehood. And then there's others who are like, hey, we need this.

So it's interesting to see what comes out of it. And I know, Sarah, you are located in the greater D.C. area. So what has your experience been like with crime in the area? how do you feel with this announcement by the president? You know, I think it's really interesting. Something obviously that we didn't see. We wouldn't see on camera when we were there at the, when I was there waiting for the president's press conference to begin.

But it was, we were actually waiting there for quite a bit for the reporters, but it was a packed room. And it's so interesting. Amongst ourselves, we talked. And everybody either has a personal story of being a victim. of crime or they have a friend who's been a victim of crime, some sort of crime, carjackings, muggings, you know, whatever it is. There's everybody, it touches everybody and it really touched everybody in that room. So yeah, so everybody has a story to tell. Me, I've known,

I've had friends who's actually friends who were actually federal law enforcement themselves and lived in D.C. Not far from the Capitol and actually was mugged and had their car stolen multiple times. This, and this has been going on for years. And so it's just, I think it's really interesting how it is impacting everybody and especially like I said, in the press, too, that's just maybe not being told. And so there is a lot of acknowledgement of what is going on. Of course, there is pushback for the president for doing this. And that's going to be, you know, that's going to be expected. But he does have the authority to do that. Because again, the district of Columbia is ultimately, it is not a state, is really kind of under federal control. So the president

can, he can, you know, activate, you know, the National Guard. That is within his, that's within his right. However, he only has basically 30 days at this point without congressional approval to sort of do some of the stuff like take federalized control over the police department, metropolitan police department. But I would say, though, interestingly, though, one of the things that is not, really talked about as much is actually D.C. is really unique in another sense is because there are multiple, almost three dozen federal law enforcement agencies that have some jurisdiction in the District of Columbia. You have Capitol Police. They have areas outside of just the Capitol. They have that overlap in the district. Secret Service Uniform Division. Park

Police has a huge, they have a huge thing. There's Amtrak Police. Smithsonian Police, the printing engraving, FBI have their own police. It just goes on and on and on. I could go on and on about the different metro police, okay, for the trains, right? Those, and they all have some jurisdiction around the district. And so honestly, when we're talking about federalizing, And he's just federalizing metropolitan police department, which is just basically, I feel like, just really kind of a portion of it of the District of Columbia. So it is interesting, though, with all those different police, you know, agencies, federal law enforcement agencies, you know, you think, my goodness, with all these different agencies and all these

different, you know, law enforcement departments, it should be the safest city in the world. And they do. The White House released a figure. And it's like tops the, tops the, you know, capitals of the world for homicides. And it is terrible. But I think, you know,

the really, I think what's going to have to come from this is this right now is sort of deterrent. This is sort of deterrent. And they're trying to clean up the streets and get things done. But what the White House ultimately wants to do, and I think some members of Congress, like Senator Lee, they want to really be able to take back like that home.

Rule Act so they can start getting back into the course and start changing some of these laws. Because a lot of these, a lot of these problems have been, a lot of this, the stuff has been used to have, like some of these carjacking. These are like some are 14 years old. I mean, they're young, young kids that are committing some of these crimes. So they have to share change those laws because they're just treated, they're treated as children. They're basically in and out. They know there's not as many repercussions. And that has been addressed. The U.S. Attorney for District Columbia, Janine Piro, she had mentioned that.

She's like, hey, this is, you know, I only have so much that I can do. And basically her kind of with adults. So there's going to have to be some changes. So I think really this is actually the beginning of the fight, you know. This certainly seems like it's just the beginning of a long, drawn out, a long drawn-out battle that's going to continue in D.C. and maybe even beyond. To keep up with more updates, be sure to visit thecentresquare.com. It was great to talk with you, Sarah.