The Daily Signal - What Gives Trump the Right ...?

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of the Daily Signal podcast. I'm your host, Joe Thomas, Virginia correspondent for The Daily Signal. Before we dive into today's interview, I want to thank you for tuning in today. If you're a first-time listener, The Daily Signal brings you fact-based reporting and conservative commentary on politics, policy, and culture. And I hope you join our band of regular listeners to our podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and also take a

Starting point is 00:01:06 moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcast. You can find additional content at DailySignal.com. Now, let's get started with today's conversation right after this. Ken, good morning. How are you, sir? Pretty good. How are you, Joe? Excellent. Excellent. Thank you for taking some time out. Muriel Bowser's statement, I thought was particularly interesting in the way she phrased it. Now, I know these folks don't say say words unintentionally when she said, we know that access to our democracy is tenuous. I think she's making a wink and a nod to what will come soon from this. Am I wrong? Well, she's been, it's almost a strange word to you. She's been very accommodating.

Starting point is 00:01:56 She recognizes that the president has the legal authority to federalize the police and to call out the National Guard. And he's done that. So she's in the awkward position of having a political base in D.C., of course, they're over 90% Democrat that just wants to pull triggers on flamethrowers at Donald Trump, no matter what. But she's not going to win on that. So why walk into that kind of a trap? It's also worth knowing for your listeners, just to use an example.

Starting point is 00:02:31 time congressional i'm sorry a dc law was overturned by congress was 2023 so joe biden signed it democrat senate put it through and it was a soft on crime bill that mariel bowser had vetoed interesting and the and the city council overrode her veto to you know so so understand that that differential between the city council and the mayor. Yes, she's by years and my standards, substantially to the left, but she's got a city council that's, you know, in the direction of a mom, Donnie or something. Yeah. And so, so that's, so she's trying to balance that politically, locally. Um, and the fact of the matter is the president is going to bring a ton of federal resources to fighting crime in D.C.

Starting point is 00:03:28 Is the peril? Who doesn't want that? Well, this is the peril. It's funny to listen to them all root for him to fail. Well, but here's the thing. I mean, at some point, the residents of Washington are going to be able to walk to the grocery store at night or drive down the street without fear of a carjacking. And people are going to start saying, well, hold it.

Starting point is 00:03:47 This may be because they're actually enforcing laws and arresting people who commit these crimes. I don't, I don't see where the president has a downside in this, Ken, do you? I think the only downside is if no one observes any change at all. So, you know, he has taken on responsibility with authority comes responsibility. He has exercised his authority. And now he recognizes there's a certain amount of responsibility to make changes. And And I think actually where you're going to see the change come in is the introduction of the Guard and federal law enforcement to supplement local law enforcement. I listened to the police union head last night, and he noted they're, you know, they're a 4,000 person department and they have less than 3,200 officers. So they're doing about, they're literally doing over 600 hours of mandatory overtime.

Starting point is 00:04:53 time her officer. Holy moly. And that is a lot of overtime. You're burning people pretty good at that point. And gee, I wonder why it's so hard to recruit, you know. And so that, you know, and that union, by the way, came out heavily in favor of the president's action. So for all of the human crime, all crimes down and this and that, bull honky, by the way. And the union had said.

Starting point is 00:05:23 the same thing. You know, all of that hue and crack, the officers on the street are like, oh, yeah, this is great. The backup has arrived. What about, so I love the way the press does this. So somebody in the press car, what about other cities, Mr. President? He goes, well, you know, there's other cities that are really bad like Oakland and Baltimore and New York and Los Angeles. So the press immediately says that the president is, you know, mulling, doing the same thing in other cities. D.C., as you pointed out, is a unique municipality versus an Oakland or a Baltimore, right, Ken? Yes. It is not in a state. It is a federal district under the Constitution. And so there are no 10th Amendment issues. The people listening to you and I

Starting point is 00:06:16 They have probably been the only people who've lived in an entire life with D.C. under Home Rule. That only happened in the early 1970s. And to be clear, what we mean by Home Rule is them electing their own folks as opposed to the federal government just running the district. And that has exceptions to it. The president is exercising one of those exceptions where he can declare an emergency and take control of the police force for 30 days. that can be extended by Congress. We'll see if they do that. See if the president even wants them to do that.

Starting point is 00:06:54 But I noted the overturning of a D.C. statute by Congress two years ago, that is also a power that the federal government retained to itself. And in the late 90s, the old mayor, Marion Berry, the witch set me up. paraphrasing they took they installed a under bill clinton they installed a financial control board to run the budget of the district which is essentially a takeover right so you know this is not an autonomous uh city relative to the federal government it's not even a city within a state so if you look at baltimore oakland they are in states the president does have the authority to federalize the guard in those areas.

Starting point is 00:07:49 We saw that in LA. Yes. And by the way, there's a trial going on right now in San Francisco over that. The judge sitting on that trial is Justice Breyer's brother. Oh, really? He has already attempted to issue a temporary restraining order, which is a high standard. So we know he's going to rule against the administration. The real question is what happens at the Ninth Circuit. And I think what's going to happen at the Ninth Circuit, having written extensively on this subject, is that they're going to say that the courts don't even have the ability to review the president's decision in this regard.

Starting point is 00:08:24 So the president has tools he can bring to bear. There's nowhere like D.C. in terms of his ability and free access to those tools. Ironically, Gavin Newsom's lawsuit out there in California is probably going to end up solidity. the president's authority to undertake steps like he did in Los Angeles anywhere. So, you know, but is that a long-term policing solution? Not really. No, it's not. But does it highlight?

Starting point is 00:09:00 And we only have a minute here, Ken, and maybe I can hang on to you. I'm being greedy here because, like I said, this is reality. Well, it's reality versus what, you know, you're getting a, it's the jackbo. of the authoritarian state is coming. You know, it draws a cleeg lamp, I believe, on this defund the police attitude. You mentioned how many hours of overtime the police have to, you know, just to bail water against the tide in D.C. And maybe, you know, by bringing these troops in, it shows, you know, what a policing level needs to look like in some of these American cities that don't have it. No, no. And the president is drawing attention to that as well. And you hear me doing it in history. I mean, the last five or ten years in D.C. have seen them get particularly crazy in the soft on crime front. And the city and the people who visited are paying the price. And the president, as you've heard him say, said, look, this is our nation's capital. This is not like every other city. This is embarrassing. And our nation's capital needs to be a shining example.

Starting point is 00:10:11 and it hasn't been for a long, long time. And that's very true. And so what about, you know, we watch Portland where he sent troops into secure federal property, like the courthouses. Is that possible in this that he says, listen, we're going to protect the federal Oh, absolutely. I asked him to do it when I was the deputy secretary. And I mean, one of the, I mean, he didn't do it. One of the lessons of the first Trump administration for clearly for the president is to move faster and more vigorously when violence crops its head and to use the resources he has available to knock it down early. So thus the response in LA. I was doing an interview on CNN yesterday where he said, well, this was nothing like 2020. I said, exactly.

Starting point is 00:11:05 You know, he learned the lesson that you don't, you know, that 2020 isn't an appropriate place to look for thresholds. It should be much earlier. And I think you can fully expect to see this be repeated in other cities if you have the kind of organized violent opposition to ICE that surfaced in Los Angeles. What about, and this is just the fanciful whims of a radio show host, so it should be taken at that face value, Ken. But we look at what the federal government was able to do during Jim Crow 1.0 when Joe Biden was a young upcoming attorney in Scranton, I'm sure. But back during Jim Crow 1.0, the federal government said, listen, you have to desegregate these schools. And when they said, no, we're not, the federal government came in and said, yes, you are. If people are not being arrested or prosecuted for what are considered to be egregious breaches of the law and other citizens' rights,

Starting point is 00:12:00 Doesn't the federal government have a place in this, or does it have to be carefully managed through the Attorney General? Well, it does have to be carefully managed to the Attorney General, regardless, but the federal government does have a place. They've historically exercised it. Interestingly, in Los Angeles, as has seen this before, under George Bush Sr., where they use the Insurrection Act to address the violence in the streets of Los Angeles. Angeles. So again, not unprecedented by any standards. And the president, by the way, hasn't utilized, hasn't turned to the Insurrection Act yet. He has that absolutely available to him. It's available to him. Forget insurrection. Anytime the president decides that the federal government's resources are inadequate to the task they're undertaking, he can utilize

Starting point is 00:13:00 it's the military to supplement that. That doesn't mean they have to stand back and do logistical support, even though that's what they've been doing thus far in this second Trump administration. They can do a lot more. And that is an option the president has. I think he wants to. And by the way, Joe, he campaigned on this. I know he did.

Starting point is 00:13:19 One of the great things about Donald Trump is, you know, he really does try to do what he said he was going to do, which is somewhat new for some of us. who grew up under the bushes, you know? Yes. That's why a lot of Republicans don't like Donald Trump. It's because, darn it, he's doing what we all said we were going to do and didn't do. Yeah, exactly. Well, Ken, I appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:13:43 You brought up insurrection, and we didn't even talk about the D.C. or the Capitol Police Chief finally, finally coming out from under his rock to say, Madam Speaker, you're wrong. Another one of those. Well, you're lying. Yeah, and he laid it out. He gave the receipts. you know, that was her police chief saying that. Yeah. So very interesting.

Starting point is 00:14:05 Yeah. Now all we need is out. People should check Twitter for that one. Sunned. It's in my feed at Ken Cuccinelli. We spent it there too. The other half of the program has been about that. Good.

Starting point is 00:14:19 Ken, it's been an I told you so Tuesday. And thank you for being part of it this morning. Good to be with you, Joe. Have a good one. Oh, by the way, you can find Ken at a American renewing.com, the Center for Renewing America. It's American Renewing.com. Bad host form burying the lead on where you can find the guest yet again.

Starting point is 00:14:43 That'll do it for today's show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new episodes from The Daily Signal. Every weekday you can catch top news in 10 to keep up with the day's top headlines in just 10 minutes. and every weekday afternoon catch Victor Davis Hanson's thoughtful analysis for the Daily Signal. If you like what you hear on this show, would you take a minute and leave us comment? We love hearing your feedback. Thanks again for being with us today.

The Daily Signal - What Gives Trump the Right ...?

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