Trump deploys National Guard for D.C. crime but called Jan. 6 rioters ‘very special'
The FBI has estimated that around 2,000 people took part in criminal acts that day, and more than 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or interfering with the police. (Citywide, Washington currently averages about 70 crimes a day.)
But President Donald Trump's handling of the most lawless day in recent Washington history stands in sharp contrast to his announcement Monday that he needed to use the full force of the federal government to crack down on 'violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals' in the nation's capital.
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After a prominent member of the Department of Government Efficiency, known by his online pseudonym, 'Big Balls,' was assaulted this month, the president took federal control of Washington's police force and mobilized National Guard troops. His team passed out a packet of mug shots, and Trump described 'roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.'
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President Trump speaks at a rally near the White House in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, before some supporters marched to riot at the US Capitol.
KENNY HOLSTON/NYT
That was nothing like the message he delivered to the mob of his supporters on Jan. 6, when he told them, as tear gas filled the hallways of the Capitol: 'We love you. You're very special.'
'If we want to look at marauding mobs, look at Jan. 6,' said Mary McCord, the director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law and a former federal prosecutor. 'If you want to look at criminal mobs, we had a criminal mob and he called them peaceful protesters.'
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In one of his first actions upon retaking the presidency, Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack. The president issued pardons to most of the defendants and commuted the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
He has sought to rewrite the history of the riot and called those arrested 'hostages.'
He has selected a passionate defender of Jan. 6 rioters to run the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, and his administration even hired a former FBI agent who was charged with encouraging the mob to kill police officers.
The agent, Jared L. Wise, has been named as an adviser to the Justice Department task force established to seek retribution against Trump's political enemies.
'He is showing one-sided support for violence that supports his political agenda,' said Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has studied the Jan. 6 defendants for more than four years.
Pape said the hiring of Wise only underscored the message sent by the pardoning of the rioters.
'What he is doing, of course,' Pape said, 'is sending the signal to everybody that you will not just be pardoned, he will not just give you moral support, but he will reward you with high-level positions and opportunities.'
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Trump has also shifted his position on police officers who used deadly force, based on the circumstances involved.
Casting himself as a champion of the police, Trump issued full and unconditional pardons this year to two D.C. police officers who were convicted after a chase that killed a young Black man in 2020.
But Trump took the opposite view of the use of deadly force during the Capitol riot, condemning the police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt and calling the officer, who is Black, a 'thug.'
The president's crackdown on Washington was put in motion by an assault against 19-year-old Edward Coristine, who was part of Elon Musk's job-slashing effort.
Trump shared a photograph that appeared to show Coristine sitting in the street around 3 a.m., bleeding and shirtless. Two teenagers have been arrested in the case.
'If D.C. doesn't get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City,' Trump said.
Crime in Washington is declining, a point many Democrats have made as they railed against Trump's actions as federal overreach. Last year, violent crime hit a 30-year low.
'Donald Trump delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake,' Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, wrote on the social platform X. 'Now, he's activating the DC Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, health care, education and immigration — just to name a few blunders.'
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that Trump's takeover of Washington's police force was unjustified.
'As you listen to an unhinged Trump try to justify deploying the National Guard in DC, here's reality: Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low,' she wrote on social media.
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Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, hit back at critics of the president's crackdown.
'I think it's despicable that Democrats cannot agree that we need more law and order in a city that has been ravaged by violence, crime, murders, property theft,' Leavitt said.
Pape said that while Coristine's injuries were troubling, they were similar to those suffered by police officers on Jan. 6.
The indictments against Jan. 6 defendants, Pape said, were full of photos of 'cops getting beaten up unbelievably with metal poles and all kinds of things, and they're being beaten pretty severely.'
McCord said she believed Trump's takeover of the Washington police would most likely be 'performative' and not make a lot of difference functionally on crime.
'This feels like very much a way to send a message: I have control. I can use it, and I will use it,' she said.
But the move also reeks of hypocrisy, McCord said.
'It's the hypocrisy of saying essentially that he supports our police, our law enforcement across the country, and wants to enact policies that support the police,' she said, 'yet that didn't apply when it came to all of the law enforcement officers on Jan. 6.'
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