Extended Situation Room cut: Inside Doug Wilson's crusade for Christian domination in the age of Trump
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The Hill
23 minutes ago
- The Hill
House Democrat: DC ‘not the safest place in the world'
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Sunday that Washington, D.C., is 'not the safest place in the world' amid President Trump's crackdown on crime in the District and pushback from Democrats over the president's actions. 'Both of my children live in Washington, D.C. You know it's not — it's not the safest place in the world,' Smith told NewsNation's Chris Stirewalt on 'The Hill Sunday.' 'And also some of the policies the Democrats advanced around crime over the course of the last 10 or 15 years very clearly did not work. There was not enough transparency and not enough accountability,' he added. Last week, Trump announced he was taking federal control of D.C.'s police department and deploying the National Guard in the city to combat crime. Since then, he has received heavy pushback on his law enforcement moves from Democrats and District residents. On Monday, Mississippi became the fourth Republican -led state to unveil plans to dispatch National Guard troops to D.C. to boost Trump's crackdown on crime in the District. 'I've approved the deployment of approximately 200 Mississippi National Guard Soldiers to Washington, D.C., to support President Trump's effort to return law and order to our nation's capital,' Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said on the social platform X. Smith said last Tuesday it was 'pretty clear' Trump ''wants his own domestic police force.' 'Look, this president is trampling on basic freedoms of the American people to a degree we — I don't think we've ever seen,' Smith said on CNN. 'You see that with what the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents are doing, in terms of picking people up off the streets with no evidence, no due process, locking people up.' 'This is happening all across the country,' the Evergreen State Democrat added. 'Look, it's pretty clear the president wants his own domestic police force, and step by step, he's trying to create it, and we should be deeply alarmed by that, regardless of how you feel about crime in Washington, D.C., or any other city.'
The Hill
23 minutes ago
- The Hill
Everyone loses in a redistricting war
Gerrymandering, a wonky topic previously discussed mainly among AP history students and political scientists, has recently dominated national news headlines. In the fight for control of Congress after the 2026 midterm elections, governors of several states are opting to hijack the decennial process for partisan advantage, rather than letting voters decide directly who should represent them in Congress. Election analyst and redistricting expert Dave Wasserman recently referred to what's happening as the 'gerrymandering apocalypse.' CNN referred to it as a 'battle royale.' And Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) said, 'we are at war.' It's easy to point fingers at Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and say 'he started it!' Abbott acquiesced to President Trump's suggestion that the state take up redistricting mid-cycle and draw five additional Republican seats — a seemingly desperate attempt to avoid the ' midterm curse, ' where the incumbent president's party typically loses House seats in a midterm election. But the Archduke Ferdinand in the war on redistricting isn't Texas, it's actually Ohio. There's a famous adage relevant here: 'So goes Ohio, so goes the nation.' And over the past two redistricting cycles, Ohio has gone down a very gerrymandered path that the nation now seems to be following. In matters that extend beyond Ohio and gerrymandering, it is imperative that we pay attention to what is going on in statehouses around the country, ' laboratories of autocracy ' as they are often rightly called, for a glimpse into the corruption that awaits our national politics. Ohio has some of the most gerrymandered maps in the nation. Its state legislature and Republican-dominated redistricting committee gerrymandered maps through a series of secret backroom deals, disregard of multiple court orders, and a deliberate strategy of confusing voters to sabotage attempted reform. They even tried to impeach the Republican chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court for ruling their rigged maps unconstitutional. But while state politicians were gerrymandering Ohio, unfortunately, few people were paying attention. Despite repeatedly breaking the rules, there was no accountability for the elected officials who took part in the scheme. To the contrary, most who participated were rewarded with electoral districts they were guaranteed to win, and a veto-proof majority in the state legislature. This has allowed Republicans in the state to pass unpopular laws that aren't supported by most voters. Take, for example, Ohio's Heartbeat Law, which outlawed abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Poll after poll showed that a majority — nearly 60 percent — of Ohioans supported abortion rights, with only 32 percent opposed and 10 percent undecided. These numbers have held relatively steady over several years. However, the 2019 legislative vote passing the bill seemed to reflect the inverse; the Ohio House passed the measure 56-40 and the Ohio Senate 18-12. Although average voters around the country weren't paying attention to what was happening in the Buckeye State, political operatives were. What happened in Ohio is now serving as a playbook for what we are seeing in states like Texas, Missouri and Florida. The governors and state legislatures of these states have indicated that they are willing to cheat to win. The Trump administration has demonstrated its willingness to ignore court orders it does not like. And, if they continue to do so, we will likely have a Congress that continues to pass legislation that is unpopular with voters. Politics is often like physics, in that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Democrats have indicated they are willing to fight back by gerrymandering blue states such as California and New York. Some have praised them for this effort, with one Democratic consultant stating: 'There's anger among Democrats, and they wonder why their elected leaders aren't doing everything they can to fight back. … Kathy Hochul is out there saying, 'I'll do everything I can to fight back — including gerrymandering the s–t out of New York.'' But as the redistricting wars escalate, it is also a reminder that, as in any war, no one actually wins. Regardless of which party controls Congress after the 2026 midterms, voters in both red and blue states will be disenfranchised, in direct violation of the Supreme Court's ' one man, one vote ' edict . Both Democrats in red states and Republicans in blue states will be without any genuine form of representation. And even those who have a congressman of their preferred party affiliation will likely be represented by a more extremist candidate whose policy positions aren't reflective of the people in that district. As noted by The Associated Press, 'gerrymandering, once a feared accusation, has now become a battle cry.' If there's any lesson we can take away from the fight, it's that the lines we need to redraw aren't those separating congressional districts, but the ones we are willing to cross to ensure our side wins at all costs.
Boston Globe
23 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Mississippi becomes fourth state to send National Guard troops to D.C. in expanding federal crackdown
Mississippi joins three other states that have pledged to deploy hundreds of National Guard members to the nation's capital to bolster the Republican administration's operation aiming to transform policing in the Democratic-led city through a federal crackdown on crime and homelessness. West Virginia said it was deploying 300 to 400 troops, South Carolina pledged 200 and Ohio said it will send 150 in the coming days, deployments that built on top of President Trump's initial order that 800 National Guard troops deploy as part of the federal intervention. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Trump's executive order that launched the federal operation declared a 'crime emergency' in the District of Columbia and initiated a takeover Washington's police department. The administration has ordered local police to cooperate with federal agents on immigration enforcement, orders that would contradict local laws prohibiting such collaboration. Advertisement 'D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs,' Trump wrote on his social media website a day after issuing his order. 'The White House is in charge. The Military and our Great Police will liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!' Advertisement During a Monday news conference, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed back on Trump's characterization of the city and voiced skepticism about the administration's intentions in flooding the capital with troops and federal agents. 'We don't have any authority over the DC Guard or any other guards, but I think it makes the point that this is not about DC crime,' Bowser said of the administration and states deploying National Guard members onto the streets of the capital. 'The focus should be on violent crime,' Bowser continued. 'Nobody is against focusing on driving down any level of violence. And so if this is really about immigration enforcement the administration should make that plain.' National Guard members in the District of Columbia have been assisting law enforcement with tasks including crowd control and patrolling landmarks such as the National Mall and Union Station. Their role has been limited thus far, and it remains unclear why additional troops would be needed. Federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service and other agencies have patrolled high traffic areas around the capital over the last week. ICE officers, who work under the Department of Homeland Security, have made arrests in neighborhoods across the city, dispersed some public gatherings and torn pro-immigrant signs, according to videos published by the administration. The White House has touted various arrests that local police and federal agents have made across the city since Trump's executive order. Federal agents have made 380 arrests in the week since the start of the operation and in some cases issued charges to detained people. The White House has touted the surge of agents on social media and posted pictures of people arrested by local and federal officers. Advertisement 'Washington, DC is getting safer every night thanks to our law enforcement partners,' Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media. 'Just this weekend, 137 arrests were made and 21 illegal firearms were seized. In total, there have been nearly 400 arrests—and we are not slowing down.' Amid the crackdown, the administration has received criticism for the conduct of some federal agents, who in several high-profile incidents have arrested people while wearing masks that hide their identity and declined to identify themselves to media or members of the public when questioned. Bowser said Monday that she had asked D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith to seek answers from the administration about the use of masked police. 'It's very important to us that agents be identified,' Bowser said. 'There's no reason for a law enforcement official to be masked.' Over the weekend in Washington, protesters pushed back on federal law enforcement and National Guard troops fanning out in the city. Scores of protesters gathered in the city's Dupont Circle on Saturday and marched to the White House. — Associated Press writer Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.
